Mega Prince Varun Tej has been going through a rough patch and all his recent films ended up as duds. The actor’s upcoming film Operation Valentine is a pan-Indian attempt and is gearing up for March release. He signed a periodic actioner titled Matka which is planned on a massive budget. Karuna Kumar is the director and Meenakshi Chaudhary is the leading lady. As per the update, the makers have kept the project on hold due to budget constraints. The discussions are going on for now but the project is not shelved.

The producers tried to close the non-theatrical deals but the quotes are quite low. Hence the makers decided to put the shoot on hold for now. The team is reworking on the budgets as the project is not viable considering the deals and the recoveries. The makers will soon approach Varun Tej on slashing down his remuneration for the film. Vyra Entertainment who produced Hi Nanna are the producers. One of the producers Cherukuri Mohan walked out of the project and Ram Talluri’s SRT Entertainments joined Matka before the shoot commenced. Now the shoot of the film was kept on hold and the February, March schedules got canceled.