"Just remember him leaving....next time I saw him in coffin ": Nimrat Kaur recalls tragic loss of her father in Kashmir

In a conversation with ANI, the actor opened up about the personal tragedy that she experienced as an 11-year-old. Nimrat's father, Major Bhupener Singh, served the nation with pride and a brave heart until his last breath.

My mom was very young when we lost him in Kashmir. My mom was like literally in her early to mid-30s. So the world she knew collapsed. We were just two young girls she was bringing up. We had family around us to support us at the time, my maternal side. But having said that, the life we knew was over, she said.

Nimrat added, "Nothing prepares you for that. Even for my father, in the way he went, nothing can prepare you for that. And I know from the conversations that happened before he was shot, he told them that, I have a family, I have two girls. I know that he was thinking of us in his last thoughts. That was all that I think he would have wanted to come back to. And for my mom, it was a day-after-day kind of a very difficult time.

Recalling the circumstances surrounding her fathers death, Nimrat said he was kidnapped while returning from a duty assignment in Kashmir by people who posed as soldiers.

He was actually kidnapped from a normal day of work. He was going somewhere for a duty that he had been assigned and then on his way back he was kidnapped by people who posed as soldiers. They were wearing army fatigues and he was taken away, she said.

Nimrat said the terrorists made several demands over a period of seven days before her family received the news of his death.

There were some ridiculous demands. They demanded the release of other people who were in captivity in India and other ridiculous demands that came up over a period of seven days. On the seventh day, we got news that he had been assassinated, she added.

The actor, who was 11 years old at the time, recalled the pain of losing her father without closure.

I saw my father leave for work that morning. I just remember him leaving and then after that the next time I saw him was in a coffin. So there is no closure there, Nimrat said.

She added that even after decades, the loss remains difficult for her family. Technically you feel like its been so long, its been a few decades, but nothing quite repairs that. Not for my mom, not for my sister, not for me and not for the rest of the family, she said.

Nimrat also spoke about her mothers strength in rebuilding their lives after the tragedy. She said the way her mother raised her and her sister with dignity and resilience remains deeply inspiring.

I really feel like the way my mother has brought us up and the way she has rebuilt her life and rebuilt our lives after that, I dont know of many women who would be able to do that single-handedly and so respectfully and in such a dignified way, she said.

Reflecting on how the experience shaped her perspective towards terror attacks and loss, Nimrat said she understands the emotional journey families go through after such tragedies.

When youve gone through something so dense as a child, you know exactly the cycles the family will go through, how theyre going to live from day to day. What I saw my mother go through, what I personally went through or what my sister went through, its something you recognise very closely, she said.

Nimrats journey from experiencing a personal tragedy at a young age to building a successful career in cinema has been shaped by resilience and perseverance.

Meanwhile, Nimrat was last seen in The Family Man 3, featuring Manoj Bajpayee and Jaideep Ahlawat. Created by Raj and DK, the series follows Srikant Tiwari, played by Manoj Bajpayee, a middle-class man balancing family life with his work as an intelligence officer in the Threat Analysis and Surveillance Cell (TASC), a fictional division of the National Investigation Agency. (ANI)