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Siddharth led Hydari to a special spot where she had spent time as a child, right above the nursery section. “He got down on his knee, and I asked him, ‘Now what have you lost? Whose shoelaces are open?’ He kept saying, ‘Addu, listen to me.’ And then he proposed. He said he wanted to bring me to my favourite childhood place, one with my grandmother’s blessings.”
Their relationship has always been lighthearted, ever since they met on the sets of the Telugu film Maha Samudram in February 2021. “He walked in and said, ‘Hello, beautiful girl.’ Usually, when someone says something like this, it does not work. But he was being genuine. By the end of the day, he had me and pretty much everyone on the set in splits. He also ensured that my team and I had ghee idlis whipped up by his cook every day for the rest of the shoot.”
Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth announced their engagement in March through a joint Instagram post. They shared a selfie showing off their engagement rings, with Aditi captioning it, “He said yes! E. N. G. A. G. E. D.” Siddharth posted the same image, writing, “She Said YES! E. N. G. A. G. E. D.” The couple posed adorably for the cameras in the photo.
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Siddharth believes that his connection with legendary filmmaker Mani Ratnam might have helped his relationship with Hydari. Before becoming an actor, he assisted Ratnam on set, and Hydari has wanted to be an actress since she was 10, inspired by the music video of ‘Kehna Hi Kya’ from Ratnam’s Bombay. When Siddharth informed Ratnam about his relationship with Hydari, Ratnam simply responded, “This is the best thing that has happened to you.”
Hydari, however, is confident that they would have fallen in love even if they had met in their teens. “I’ve not been in too many relationships because when I see someone, I instantly know if this is my person,” she says. “When I met Siddhu, that’s what I felt and had no doubt about it. Of course, there is a process of growing together in a relationship, but I had none of that going on in my mind when I met him. It was all about that moment.”
After their first meeting, they began dating, but they had to navigate their different approaches to public spaces. Hydari, who has lived in Mumbai since 2011, is comfortable in crowds, while Siddharth is shy and needs encouragement to step out. “I’ve had my journey with understanding fame over the past 20 years, but I still try to go out without a security detail,” he explains.
“Now, when we’re together and there are cameras all around us, it makes no sense to me, purely because neither of us is the kind who can live in our ivory tower and not go out in the world.”
