Director Karthik Subbaraj is busy promoting his ninth feature film, Retro, which is gearing up for release next week. In one such promotional interview, the director revealed that he initially wrote the script for Retro with Rajinikanth in mind.
Speaking to Galatta, Karthik said, “I did not write this script for Vijay. In fact, I wrote it for Thalaivar. Initially, it had more action and mass moments. However, as I developed the script, I realised that it was a love story, not a mass action film. That’s when Suriya came on board.”
Furthermore, Karthik said that the script has been altered to suit Suriya by bringing in more vulnerability to his character. “When Suriya sir read the first draft of the script, he accurately guessed that the script was written for Rajini sir. I then altered the protagonist to make him more vulnerable. But this doesn’t mean that the character will not have heroic action sequences,” he explained.
Karthik was then asked if speculations about him being one of the choices for actor Vijay’s final film were true. “It is true that I narrated a script to Vijay sir for his final film. I have spoken to him many times in the past. After Jigarthanda, Vijay Sir had a conversation with me, in which he said he would love to do a film with me. Ever since, I have narrated many stories to Vijay sir. But as many know, I am not a great narrator, and so, things never materialised. By the time I could put together a script for his last film, he decided to collaborate with H Vinoth.”
Karthik Subbaraj, who is known as a fan of actor Rajinikanth, previously collaborated with the veteran actor in 2019 for the film Petta.
Suriya’s 44th film, Retro, also stars Pooja Hegde, Joju George, Jayaram, Karunakaran, Nassar, Prakash Raj and Sujith Shankar, among others. The film is jointly produced by Karthikeyan Santhanam of Stone Bench Creations and Jyotika and Suriya of 2D Entertainment.
The technical crew of Retro comprises music composer Santhosh Narayanan, cinematographer Shreyaas Krishna and editor Shafique Mohamed Ali. The film is all set to hit theatres on May 1, alongside Sasikumar’s Tourist Family.