Director Karthik Subbaraj has revealed that his upcoming film "Retro" is a complete love story. In a recent YouTube interview, he clarified that unlike his earlier movies, "Retro" is not a gangster film but focuses primarily on romance. He explained that although previous projects explored romantic relationships to some extent, "Retro" is his first full-fledged love story. However, he also mentioned that the film includes plenty of action, but it shouldn’t be classified as a gangster movie.

Karthik shared insights about how the film came together with actor Suriya. He first met Suriya a couple of years ago and narrated a different story, which Suriya liked. At that time, Karthik was busy with his film "Mahaan", and Suriya had other commitments. Later, after finishing "Jigarthanda DoubleX", Karthik met Suriya again. Due to the earlier project requiring extensive pre-production, they decided to work on something new.

Suriya expressed interest in doing something fresh, away from his usual roles. This led Karthik to bring up the concept of "Retro", which he had previously written. Suriya appreciated the idea and gave a suggestion that Karthik really liked. This input helped develop the story further, especially adding more commercial action elements and strengthening the lead character. As a result, Karthik rewrote the story and they immediately began production on the film.