Director Karuna Kumar talks about his upcoming film Matka and how Varun Tej came into this project, the Telugu culture and Vizag city
suresh kavirayani
sureshkavirayani@gmail.com
The Varun Tej starrer Matka is all set to hit the screens tomorrow (November 14). Director Karuna Kumar, known for Palasa, is the director of the film. Ahead of the release, he talks about the film and the inspiration behind it.
“My family and I had attended a family marriage, where we casually discussed many things. Later, my father-in-law told us about this game called Matka. I do know about the lottery, but was not really aware of Matka,” began the director, Karuna Kumar, who back then got very curious about the game. “The discussion prolonged about Vizag and the club culture in older days and how the cabaret dance happened in Vizag at that time. In Vizag, these things happened in One Town, so I got interested in these stories and decided to do some kind of research about the game and also the old culture of Vizag,” said Karuna Kumar. That’s how he got inspired for the story. He initially wanted to write the story first. “I didn’t want to make a film, as I wanted to write a short story with the title Vadipoyina Poolu. Later, I thought that this story was good for cinema. So, I have taken the original incidents and then added a complete fictional story to it with my own imagination,” said Karuna Kumar.
The director said that there is vast literature in Telugu. After Bengal, he says, it is the Telugu literature, which has a very vast and highest number of stories. He added that people often complain about Telugu cinema compared to Malayalam and Tamil. “There is a misconception that Telugu cinema means a protagonist wears a colourful shirt and dances with four to five girls. But we have enormous literature in our Telugu and there are thousands of stories to tell. Before in any other language, we are the first ones to come out with a social problem film like Malapilla by Gudavalli Ramabrahmam,” said Karuna Kumar. The director said that because of not using Telugu literature and stories properly, there is a big loss to the Telugu people. “Rajinikanth is a superstar in Tamil and even in Telugu. Same with some other Tamil actors and we also encourage other language films too. But when it comes to Tamil Nadu, our actors’ films are not shown on many screens. Chiranjeevi’s film is not screened in Tamil Nadu, unlike a Rajinikanth film screened in Telugu,” said the director about Telugu.
Talking about this, Matka, he said he made it in his own style. “This is a typical commercial entertainer where I narrated the story of Vasudev or Vasu,” said the director. “In reality, if you look at many powerful people from Visakhapatnam, most of them are outside people. They came to Vizag and then became popular. Likewise in my film, Vasudev came from Burma to Vizag and started his journey here,” said Karuna Kumar.
The director said that the present generation may know about this game, but he showed it in the film, which can be understood. “When there was no mobile, they sent the same number to the entire country in one day. That is the interesting point to me and you can watch the film for this,” he said. The director said that he didn’t show Ratan Khatri’s story in it. “His life is a big story and Nagaraj Manjule is making a web series on him, which is good and can be told in many hours. The only reference is Ratan Khatri came from Pakistan and Vasu came from Burma; this is the only reference I have taken,” said Karuna.
Talking about Varun Tej as the lead actor, he said he narrated three stories to the Vyra production house. “In those three, they picked this one and it is suited for Varun Tej. That’s how the story went to him and we started the film,” he said. “Varun gave a fantastic performance and I am confident that he is going to mention Matka film in the coming 20 years,” said about Varun Tej. He added that he is a very down-to-earth person and a director’s actor.
He has taken nearly 3,600 images for reference. “To get the periodic look and also the Vizag city in the 50s to 80s, I have taken many images as references. The look is very important and we erected sets for it,” said the director.
The director said he made films within the budget. “If you look at my previous films, I made films within the budget and never went overboard after the shooting starts,” he said. He added that his next film is supposed to be for Dheeraj Mogilineni! “The story is ready and we also scouted for shooting locations and finalised the lead actor too. But the lead actor is busy with another project and he wants to give a few days to my film, which I didn’t like. I wanted to start my next film by January or February,” said Karuna Kumar.
