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Most of us have already watched Retro, the Karthik Subbaraj directorial starring Suriya, either on the big screen or on Netflix. The film had massive pre-release hype, but its box office performance didn’t live up to expectations. The film had a lot to say, but with a limited runtime of about two and a half hours, there wasn’t enough time to tell the complete story or make the audience truly care about the journey of the on-screen characters. The main hindrance was the runtime, which restricted deeper character development and storytelling.
Karthik Subbaraj’s Tactic To Overcome The Limitations Of Retro
Director Karthik Subbaraj is now trying to overcome that hurdle with a limited series adaptation on Netflix. However, Netflix has not agreed to it yet. In a recent interview with the Tamil YouTube channel Galatta Plus, he revealed this development. They talked about, as an example, a 37-minute portion that the host had seen, which was cut down to 10 to 15 minutes in the film. It included training montages, flashbacks involving the romantic interest, and emotionally driven reasons for not fighting back, conveyed through those flashbacks. This section also contains an explanation for the “Daddy Daddy” song used in the second half.
Was Retro Always Supposed To Be A Limited Series?
Karthik further explained his writing process and why he ended up with more footage than required for the film. He said he couldn’t write specifically for a two- or two-and-a-half-hour screen time, even though he was trying to achieve that. “Once you start writing, you get indulged in the character, and when you read it, there are techniques in books—like one page equals one minute—but it doesn’t always work.” Others are also involved in this process, his direction team reviews the script and uses software to break it down. He also mentioned that he gets assistance from the editors to remove unnecessary elements before the shooting begins, but their answer would often be “it will be correct,” while the final output still turns out longer.
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“You can never know,” he said, providing an example: “Retro has a mirror scene in which he goes and tries to smile for the first time. That was just one line in that thing (script), but when he performed it, it was a single shot—like nearly 1 minute and 20 seconds.” And in the movie, the moment was broken up through intercutting.
Let’s hope Netflix agrees to the idea of a mini-series, as Karthik already has the necessary footage, and maybe a mini-series can turn Retro into a cult classic.
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