Retro is a love story, confirms Karthik Subbaraj; reveals this wasn't the first script he narrated to Suriya: ‘He wanted to try something new'
Refuting rumours that his upcoming Retro is a gangster movie, director Karthik Subbaraj has revealed that the Suriya and Pooja Hegde-starrer is a romantic actioner. Dubbing it as his first film with a love story at the centre, Karthik shared that Retro, however, features a lot of action sequences too.
'It doesn't feature a gangster story. This is the first time I am doing a love story. Although I had explored (romantic) relationships in my previous films too, this one is conceived as a man-woman love story. At the same time, it also has a lot of action; but the movie is not about a gangster,' he shared during a chat with Galatta Plus. Karthik also shared that the movie doesn't even fall into the same bracket as his previous directorial Mahaan (2022), which had opened to widespread acclaim.
'I got to explore the emotion of love more in this film,' he shared, adding that the contributions of the music department and the actors have also helped him materialise his vision properly. 'This, I would say, is my full-fledged love story,' he added.
Recalling how he managed to bring Suriya on board the project, Karthik Subbaraj said: 'I met him once 2-3 years ago; but it was another script that I narrated to him then. He liked that one too. However, I was working on Mahaan at that time. After that (once Karthik became free), he had some film commitments. And then I started Jigarthanda DoubleX. I met with him again after completing DoubleX. Since the project we had already shaken hands on required more pre-production work, we decided to keep it for later.'
Watch Karthik Subbaraj and Suriya's Retro trailer here:
The filmmaker continued: 'Suriya asked me if I had any other script and shared that he wanted to try out something new that deviated from the kind of work that he had been doing till that point. I had the crux of Retro's script then itself; I had noted down the idea beforehand. I gave him that to read, and he liked it a lot. Then he gave a suggestion that I liked a lot. Pointing out that it had too many mass action elements, Suriya suggested making the lead character more grounded and vulnerable. I liked that and wrote another version of the script. We commenced the project soon afterwards.'
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