Mega Prince Varun Tej has been falling short of the expectations and all his recent films ended up as huge failures in theatres. His theatrical market has been shrinking badly and all his recent films Ghani, Gandeevadhari Arjuna and Operation Valentine failed badly at the box-office. This is impacting his next film Matka which was planned on a huge budget. Almost two schedules of the film got completed and the shoot came to a halt after the makers struggled to close the non-theatrical deals. Varun Tej has been mounting pressure on the makers to complete the film and he even informed them about cutting down his paycheque.

The makers approached all the top digital players but the OTT quotes were not satisfying. Matka is also a periodic film and Palasa fame Karuna Kumar is the director. There is no strong pulling factor for the film except Varun Tej. The team decided to shelve the project at a stage but with Varun mounting pressure, they are reworking on the budgets. If Varun slashes his remuneration and if tight schedules are planned, Matka will be back on to the track. For now, there is a point of confusion going on. Meenakshi Chaudhary is the leading lady and Wyra Entertainment are the producers.