Mumbai, April 17 : Actress Pooja Hegde wished happy birthday to 'everyone's favourite Hegde', her father Manjunath Hegde, with an adorable throwback pic from her childhood.

The old still posted on Pooja's Instagram Stories from one of her father's previous birthdays showed him cutting the cake in the presence of the 'Beast' actress and her brother, Rishabh Hegde.

The little Pooja had a shy smile on her face as the three of them looked into the camera.

"Happy Birthday to everyone's favourite Hegde. Let's face it, we're all just your sidekicks. Love you Dad (sic)."

On the professional front, Pooja is the leading lady in director H Vinoth's much-discussed actioner "Jana Nayagan", starring Vijay Thalapathy as the lead.

The film has been making constant headlines ever since footage from the drama was leaked on the internet.

Recently, Pooja expressed her disappointment, appealing to movie buffs to wait for the film to release in theatres.

Pooja's statement on social media read, "My lovely audience. A film is the result of countless hours, creative risks, personal sacrifices, and a team that showed up every single day hoping to give you the best experience possible. Seeing our film leaked online is disheartening, not just for me, but for every single person who worked on it."

"To see it being leaked and shared illegally is toughâ??not because of numbers, but because it takes away the respect that every artist and technician on the film deserves.... plus don't we all deserve to gather together to celebrate and watch Vijay sir's last film, one last time, on the big screen in the right way?," added the 'Deva' actress.

She concluded the note with the following words, "So let's watch it the right way. Let's wait. It will be out in due time. Let's not encourage piracy. That's how cinema and art will survive. Love, Art. Artists. Technicians."

Over and above this, Pooja will also be a part of David Dhawan's romantic comedy "Hai Jawani Toh Ishq Hona Hai", alongside Varun Dhawan.

/IANS