Matka Box Office Collection Day 1: Varun Tej Witnesses Career's Lowest Opening, Mints ₹70 Lakh

Matka Box Office Collection: Varun Tej's starrer, based on the life of gambler Ratan Khetri, hit the theatres on November 14. The movie portrayed the actor in a titular role, which earned him positive reviews from the audience and critics. However, they were seemingly unhappy with the direction of the movie and called it "highly predictable." This impacted the movie's reception, leaving a grave impact on the box office.

Matka box office collection day 1

Helmed by Karuna Kumar, the movie earned only ₹70 lakh on the first day of its release in theatres. The periodic drama had an overall 15.71 per cent Telugu occupancy on Thursday, with the maximum reported in Visakhapatnam (27.75 per cent). This makes it Varun's career's lowest opening so far. However, positive word of mouth can play a major role in the movie's box office collection.

His last movie Operation Valentine was able to open at ₹1.45 crore at the Indian box office, despite negative reviews.

Netizens' verdict of Matka

Overall the film has opened to a mixed response with netizens appreciating Varun Tej's acting skills and redeeming the film his career film. X users are especially appreciating the first 20 minutes of the film. The action sequences and background music of the movie also received a special mention from social media users. However, some users critiqued the movie's ‘predictable’ plot and called some scenes dragged and ‘boring'.

What else do we know about Matka?

The story takes place between 1958 and 1982 in Visakhapatnam and is based on real-life incidents. It follows the 24 years of Vasu, a prominent Matka gambler and gangster.

Apart from Varun, the movie also stars Meenakshi Chaudhary, and Nora Fatehi (in her Telugu cinema debut) in the lead roles.