Karthik Subbaraj and his 'Retro' team launch BTS comics to promote Suriya film

Karthik Subbaraj and his team have envisioned a unique way to promote their upcoming film, Retro, headlined by Suriya, before the action thriller hits theatres on May 1. 

Subbaraj's Stone Bench Creations and Suriya's 2D Entertainment have launched the "Retro BTS Comic", which is basically a comic strip detailing the behind-the-scenes efforts that went into making the film or certain sequences. The team plans to launch one episode every week. 

The first comic strip titled 'First Day First Shot', released on Monday, consists of two panels, showing how Subbaraj and his team shot the single-take entry scene of Suriya in Andaman.

The team captioned the first strip: "Forget the usual pooja ceremony or predictable promo videos—Karthik Subbaraj wanted something totally unique. So, the team went all out and shot a single, high-impact scene to announce Retro. No fluff, just pure cinematic punch. And guess what? Fans went crazy for it!" 

The post says that the first glimpse was shot in "insane rain" but Suriya nailed it in one take. "The weather didn’t cooperate, but the team didn’t back down either. Every single technician and artist gave it their all."

The comic also praised the efforts of composer Santhosh Narayanan whom they called 'The Speedster' on account of his ability to create a retro theme within two hours, while he was working on Kalki 2898 AD. 

"Busy with Kalki 2898 AD? No problem! SaNa still made time for Retro because, well, it’s Suriya + Karthik Subbaraj! He got the file at 3 PM, cooked up a killer retro theme in record time, and delivered it by 5 PM. Talk about a musical beast!"

The team also added that the first glimpse was not only shot on location but also put through the digital intermediate process "in a flash". 

However, due to the turbulent internet of Andaman at the time, the team couldn't upload it on time. After a delay of two hours, they finally managed to post it at 8 pm.

Retro has Pooja Hegde playing the female lead. The rest of the cast features Joju George, Jayaram, Karunakaran, Nassar, and Prakash Raj among others.

Shot by Shreyaas Krishna (Mahaan, Rocky), the film's editing is handled by Shafique Mohamed Ali, who edited Subbaraj's Jigarthanda Double X and Rahul Sadasivan's Bramayugam starring Mammootty.