Aditi Rao Hydari called Mani Ratnam a storyteller par excellence as she reminisced about her character Leela in the filmmaker’s 2017 romantic war drama Kaatru Veliyidai, sharing a series of throwback pictures featuring Karthik Sivakumar and the late K.P.A.C. Lalitha to mark the film’s seventh anniversary on April 7.

“We are always told that people don’t change and we should not expect them to, but Varun did for leela,” wrote Aditi alongside a series of pictures from the set of Kaatru Veliyidai. One of the pictures shows director Mani Ratnam guiding Aditi during the filming of a scene. The carousel also features National Award-winning actress Lalitha, who played the role of Achamma in the movie.

In Kaatru Veliyidai, Aditi played Leela Abraham, a young doctor who develops feelings for Air Force officer Varun Chakrapani (Karthik) while treating him after an accident. They, however, part ways after Leela discovers that Varun has a dark side to his personality. Varun undergoes a transformation while held captive after a war. After escaping from prison, he begins searching for Leela and reunites with her and their daughter Rohini seven years later.

Recalling the film’s storyline, Aditi wrote in her post, “Leela walked away from him believing that if he changed he would come looking for her, crossing 7, seas 7 mountains, and 7 years.”

“It’s been 7 years! thank you for the love that keeps growing for this love story. Its made be a believer x . And you must be one too, and that’s our super power,” the actress added, alluding to the power of true love portrayed in the film.

Aditi went on to express her admiration for Mani Ratnam as a storyteller as the latter delved into the minds of his characters. “His leela balanced courage, agency, playfulness, curiosity, kindness, authenticity stubbornness ,dignity with the idealism and power of true love, where her self respect and belief was never compromised,” the actress signed off, remembering the strength of her character in the film.

Aditi, who recently got engaged to her Maha Samudram co-star Siddharth, will be next seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s OTT debut Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, which also stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjeeda Shaikh, Sharmin Segal, and Richa Chadha. The series is slated to premiere on Netflix on May 1.