Mumbai, April 13 (AHN) Actor Vijay Varma, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming crime drama and thriller series ‘Matka King’, has spoken up on the nuances of his gambling lord, and how he put together the character.

In the series, Vijay essays the role of a fictional gambling lord, who operates a string of matkas (gambling pots) across Mumbai. To fine tune his character, Vijay got in touch with a magician, who taught him the card tricks.

The actor spoke with AHN during the promotions of the show, and shared how he honed his skills with the card, and spent 10 months with the deck of cards.

He told AHN, “I got familiar with the cards in the sense, I learnt how to hold them, shuffle them. I also learnt some tricks. There is a magician called Ashwam. The production guys used to send him to my house. So, I did 12 or 15 sessions with him. Over the span of one month. He used to teach me how to do it with cards, what tricks to learn, how to shuffle it, how to show it. I wanted to show that my character has a second skin, the cards. So, it was a lot of fun to achieve that”.

However, the actor soon realised that cards take away a lot of attention given the tricks and the game, and he was met with the challenge of delivering his lines while being fully immersed in the game.

He said, “When you engage with cards, it takes so much of your energy or attention that you won't be able to do the scene. Like a new musician can't sing while playing the harmonium. Either he will play or sing. I wanted to talk while playing the game”.

“The cards were in my hand for 10 months while I was shooting for the series. So, this was the preparation. My director, Nagraj sir and I used to see it daily to see how we can evolve the game. It was very important to establish a trustworthy, honest character in the first episode. So, we tried to make people relate to this character and get them involved in its journey”, he added.

Directed by Nagraj Manjule, ‘Matka King’ is set to stream on Prime Video from April 17, 2026.