In the 1960s, Ratan Khatri, a Sindhi businessman in Mumbai, got an idea in his head. If everyone's always hustling, from wageworkers to housewives, why not consolidate? The city’s bustling cotton mills paid modest, fixed wages to workers; to turn a quick buck, folks turned to ankara jugad, a type of informal betting based on the opening and closing rates of the New York Cotton Exchange. Khatri tweaked and Indianised, streamlining the format with the act of drawing numbered chits from a matka (earthen pot). He also improved the odds for anyone playing, promising better transparency—and returns—than his competitors. All of a sudden, the game felt fair, open, and accessible. And like that, matka gambling was born.
Khatri is the obvious, though unacknowledged, inspiration behind Matka King, a new Prime Video series starring Vijay Varma as a gambling fixer in 60s Mumbai. Co-created and co-written by Abha Koranne, the eight-episode series is directed by Nagraj Manjule, who makes his longform debut with the show.
“The civilisational roots of gambling are ancient,” Manjule tells THR India. “What interested me in this story is how the economic and sociopolitical landscape of post-Independence Mumbai led to the emergence of Matka. What kind of hardships, aspirations and frustrations must have drawn ordinary people to its appeal?’
It wasn't just the working class. As Vijay Verma, who plays the central character Brij, notes, the game took birth in the mills and factory floors but soon travelled to the highest echelons of elite society. “It blew my mind that the biggest movie stars, producers, music composers and politicians of the time started playing it. It travelled really far and wide." Indeed, by the 70s, Ratan Khatri had successfully diversified into a movie producer, producing the 1976 film Rangila Ratan starring Rishi Kapoor and Parveen Babi.
In the series, Brij—despite the hint of a card game in his name—is portrayed as an honest, egalitarian, clean-cut man, a Nehruvian contrast to the flashy, amoral hucksters of recent pop culture. “The golden rule of gambling is that the house always wins,” Manjule explains. “Brij realised that he can build an empire not by fooling or cheating people but through luck, smarts and hardwork. It’s kind of a lost idea that honesty pays in the long run, and we wanted to highlight that.”
Manjule’s films, including the acclaimed Marathi features Sairat and Fandry, have strongly reflected his life experiences and worldview. His debut Hindi feature Jhund told the story of slum soccer Vijay Barse through an Ambedkarite lens. Matka King also looks at the social upheavals of its time, but primarily via a class-social mobility axis (only three episodes were available for preview).
“This was a new story and character, and I did not want to impose my personal politics on it,” Manjule explains, pushing back against the idea of being bracketed as a filmmaker. “I have narrated the story through Brij’s perspective and found the subtext in the world that surrounds him. That said, if I have made it with sincerity, you will see my reflection in it.”
Vijay Varma broke out with his performance in Gully Boy (2019) and has since built a reputation for granular, character-forward roles. His streaming work, including turns in Jaane Jaan, Dahaad and IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack, has been widely acclaimed, placing him alongside his FTII batchmate Jaideep Ahlawat.
Varma avows he wants to keep expanding his craft instead of caving to trends. His choices, he asserts, are driven by a ‘love of movies’ and not career math. “I believe work done once is fine, but work sustained over decades brings a deeper, more consolidated kind of love,” the actor says. “So I’m banking on that idea. I don’t feel the need to project myself or chase something that requires too much performance off-screen. For me, the work is the play part, and managing a career is the actual work. And I enjoy the playing.”
