Varun Tej: "Matka is a Perfect Commercial Mass Film"

"Matka is a perfect commercial mass film. Getting a character like Vasu is my luck as an actor. The audience will definitely connect with Vasu's character": Hero Varun Tej

Mega Prince Varun Tej's most awaited movie 'Matka' is directed by Karuna Kumar and produced by Dr. Vijender Reddy Teegala and Rajani Talluri under Vyra Entertainments and SRT Entertainments with a high budget. Meenakshi Chaudhary and Nora Fatehi are the heroines. The teaser and trailer of this movie have created a huge buzz. The music album composed by star music director GV Prakash Kumar has become a chartbuster hit. 'Matka', which the audience is eagerly waiting for, will be released on November 14th. On this occasion, Mega Prince Varun Tej shared the details of the film in a press meet.

How is the story of 'Matka' going to be?

Matka is the story of a boy named Vasu. He comes to Vizag as a refugee from Burma. We will show how he grew up step by step from 1958 to 82. This is the life story of a boy named Vasu.

Is there a similarity between Vasu and Matka King Ratan Khatri's character?

The director thought of making this story according to the Telugu nativity. Ratan Khatri's is a Mumbai backdrop. He came to Mumbai from Pakistan. Moreover, people talk about his actions as rumors, but there is no evidence for some of them. In the days when there were no cell phones, it is said that he sent the same number to the entire country on the same day. No one knows how he sent it. Our director thought about how he would have done it if he were the Matka King, and designed Vasu's character with the ideas that came to him.

What kind of homework did you do for the character of Vasu?

The major homework is that I spent a lot of time with the director. I read the script many times. It helps a lot to bring in the character. While reading, we get an idea of how Vasu's character will be. A structure is built with it. How does he sit? How does he walk? How does he smoke a cigarette? All these ideas come while reading.
Coming to the Uttarandhra dialect, since Vasu comes from Burma, there is no need for him to speak that dialect in the beginning. As the character's journey progresses, the dialect will come naturally. As he gets older, his bad language and dialect will be polished along with his character.
The production design of Matka is also wonderful. When I sat and talked with the other actor at the shooting location, the response he gave also helped. We also did script reading sessions for the film.

In Karuna Kumar's previous films, caste discrimination is underlined somewhere. What kind of point did you touch on in this?

Matka is not a message oriented film. This is a proper commercial mass film. In Vasu's character, there is a pain and anger that no one helps him. As you travel with Vasu's character, sometimes what he says seems true. Sometimes it feels bad. Sometimes you get angry with that character. Every five years, his personality changes somewhere in this man. All this can be seen in Vasu's character.
In this country, one person earns 90 paise out of every rupee in circulation. The remaining 10 paise are fought over by 99 people. Vasu wants to be in that one percent. This is the concept of the film.

What is the main reason for accepting this film?

One of the biggest reasons to accept Matka movie is the characterization. This is a very strongly written character. Not good or bad... when the audience sits in theaters, they should connect with a character, travel with that character, want him to win, love him... that's the commercial cinema formula. If you look at it like that, everyone in the audience will connect with Vasu's character. The audience will go back to the 60s and 70s. They will travel with Vasu for two and a half hours. This is a film made targeting the mass audience. It will be liked by all fans.

About GV Prakash Kumar's music?

This is a gangster type movie. When we were thinking about who to take as the music director... the background score for the movie Gangs of Wasseypur is amazing. Many people don't know that GV Prakash did the background score for that movie. We traveled with GV Garu with the belief that he can perfectly deliver for films of this genre. There are four songs in this. Those song stories are very important. He gave stunning BGM. I saw it last night and it was awesome. Amazing score. It takes the movie to the next level.

What kind of work did you do to play the old character in this?

The director and I talked and designed that look. We took an AI reference according to age. I played that character while maintaining a balanced diet. We tried to be close to realism while being commercial and appealing to everyone.

When telling a criminal story, you have to show their emotional pain in a way that connects, right? So how will the emotion be in Vasu's character in this?

There is a very beautiful scene in the second half. When Vasu's character is expressing his pain, when he is telling his daughter the story of a bird about why he became like that... tears will come from anyone's eyes after hearing that story. That scene came out very well. I kept reading that scene and dialogues for almost a week. There is excitement about how people will receive that scene.

About director Karuna Kumar?

I liked Karuna Kumar's sensibilities. He tells the ground reality without sugar coating. I really liked that. He is a very good writer. He can improvise on the sets and write some amazing words. The dialogue about Dharma in this was written on the spot. He said the dialogue 'Dharma is what you need' in seconds. He has a lot of knowledge. There are many such dialogues in this.
Karuna Kumar is a director with good vision. He also has a good command of music. He can do wonders if he gets a good team. His direction team, DOP Kishore, everyone worked together wonderfully. He got a team to take his vision to the next level. He will get a better name with this film.

It's a period film.. tell us about the set work?

We recreated the majority of the locations. We recreated the entire Poorna market. Except for Yarada beach and Kakinada port, all the other scenes were recreated by RFX with huge sets.

Will there be a high dose of violence in this?

They gave U/A to the movie. We thought they would give 'A' (laughing). There is violence in the movie. Action sequences are up to 9. The second half goes into a revenge drama zone. The movie will be action packed in the last part.

You are appearing in almost four getups, how did you transform for each getup?

It is an actor's luck to get such characters. I felt very happy when I heard this character. In the last three films, I have done films with some limitations in terms of performance. After Gaddala Konda Ganesh, when I was looking for a film with scope for such performance, this story came. Definitely playing a character like Vasu will be challenging. You should see Vasu on the screen, not Varun. You have to work hard for that. After Gaddala Konda Ganesh, when I went out, they called me Ganesh instead of Varun. That's the biggest compliment to me. There is no greater joy than being called by the character's name as an actor. That is my priority too.

How will Meenakshi Chaudhary's character be?

Her character travels with Vasu. A character who supports each other. There will be an emotional twist. We hope her luck will favor us. Nora's is also a good character. She did wonderfully.
I took actors who perfectly fit the characters for this film. Kannada Kishore, John Vijay, Rajesh, Naveen Chandra, all of them are proper actors.

Work experience with Vyra Entertainments, SRT Entertainments?