Actor Vicky Kaushal fondly looked back at his debut Hindi film Masaan on its release day nine years after its release, sharing a photo of him from the movie and thanking the director, Neeraj Ghaywan, for giving him a break.

“9 years. Thank you @neeraj.ghaywan,” wrote the 36-year-old actor after posting the picture on Instagram on Wednesday.

In Masaan, which arrived in the theatres on July 24 in 2015, Vicky played Deepak Kumar, the youngest member of a Dom family working at the cremation ghats of Varanasi. He experiences a breakdown after his beloved Shaalu Gupta (Shweta Tripathi) dies in a bus accident and her body ends up at the same cremation ground where Deepak’s family works.

Deepak, however, eventually overcomes his grief and secures a job as an engineer with Indian Railways in Allahabad. One day, he meets Devi Pathak (Richa Chadha) by the banks of the Ganga, someone with whom he started to share his tragic story.

An Indo-French co-production by Drishyam Films, Macassar Productions, Phantom Films, Sikhya Entertainment, Arte France Cinema and Pathé Productions, Masaan also marks the directorial debut of Ghaywan.

The independent drama film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in France and it won two awards.

The cast of Masaan at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.

Masaan is currently available for streaming on Netflix.

While Vicky recently starred in Dharma Productions’ Bad Newz alongside Triptii Dimri and Ammy Virk, Richa was last seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s maiden web series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.