Actor Nimrat Kaur has recalled the tragic loss of her father, Major Bhupender Singh, who was killed in a terror attack in Kashmir when she was 11 years old. Decades later, she spoke about the day her family received the news of his death, her mother’s struggle to raise two daughters alone and the lasting impact of the loss. In a conversation with ANI, Nimrat opened up about the personal tragedy she experienced as a child. She recalled how her father, who was serving in the Army, was taken away while returning from a duty assignment in Kashmir.“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.
30 Sept 2026 | 13:16
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“He told them that, I have a family, I have two girls”
Nimrat said the circumstances surrounding her father’s death made the loss even harder for the family. According to her account, he was returning from a normal day of work when he was kidnapped by people who were dressed in Army fatigues and 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.She said the terrorists made several demands during the seven days before the family learned that he had been killed. “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. Nimrat also recalled conversations that took place before her father was shot. She said she knew that he was thinking about his family during his final moments.“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,” she said.
“The next time I saw him was in a coffin”
She said the passage of time has not erased the loss for her family.
For Nimrat, the last memory of her father before his death remains particularly painful. She said she saw him leave for work that morning but did not see him again until his body was brought home. “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 said the passage of time has not erased the loss for her family. “Technically you feel like it’s been so long, it’s 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 recalled her mother’s strength
Nimrat also spoke about her mother’s role in rebuilding the family after her husband’s death. She said her mother was in her early to mid-30s when she suddenly had to raise two young daughters without her husband. “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 don’t know of many women who would be able to do that single-handedly and so respectfully and in such a dignified way,” she said. Nimrat said her family had support from her maternal relatives at the time, but the life they had known before her father’s death had changed permanently.
How the tragedy shaped Nimrat’s understanding of loss
The actor also reflected on how experiencing such a tragedy as a child changed the way she understands families dealing with terror attacks and loss. “When you’ve gone through something so dense as a child, you know exactly the cycles the family will go through, how they’re 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, it’s something you recognise very closely,” she said. Nimrat’s memories of her father and her mother’s experience have remained part of how she understands grief and the aftermath of sudden loss. Her own journey from losing her father at 11 to building a career in cinema has unfolded over several decades. Nimrat was last seen in ‘The Family Man 3’, featuring Manoj Bajpayee and Jaideep Ahlawat.
