Mumbai, Nov 13 (IANS) Actor Sidharth Malhotra opened up about the loss of his father and the emotional experience of balancing grief with the joys of parenthood.
He expressed how the experience changed his priorities in life. Sidharth, who recently appeared with wife and actress Kiara Advani on Koffee With Karan, spoke about his late father’s prolonged illness and how caring for him in his final years shaped his understanding of parenthood.
“We were kind of prepared. I think we went through a process with him. His ailment and condition in particular was getting little worse year by year,” Sidharth said.
The actor said his experiences with his young daughter Saraayah often remind him of the time he spent caring for his father.
“Now when I look back and I go and do all these interesting things with Saraya in our building, in our home, it reminds me that I used to take my dad in a very similar way swimming in our building because it was hydrotherapies what he needed for his condition,” he said.
Sidharth revealed that during the last few years of his father’s life, their relationship had evolved in a way that made him feel like he was parenting his own parent.
“The last four or five years it was almost like you know my dad was like my first child. Like you had started parenting him,” he said.
The actor revealed that his father had been diagnosed with early Parkinson’s and recalled how active and physically fit he had been throughout his life.
“He was diagnosed with early Parkinson’s and he’s been a very fit guy all through his life. I was in the merchant navy so I get a lot of my outdoor activity from my father and that’s what I used to love taking him to the pool,” Sidharth said.
“He used to love interacting with me, we used to do counts and workouts together even at that age,” he said. Sidharth said becoming a father himself has made those memories feel even more relatable.
“Now it’s surreal when I do the same thing with Saraya. It almost feels like okay I have done this before and we just lost him this year,” he said.
While speaking about his mother, Sidharth acknowledged the difficult period she has gone through after spending more than five decades with his father. “It was obviously my mother who’s been with him for 50 plus years who has had it much worse but she’s a very strong woman,” he said..“I think she was there like a rock. The only blessing is that all of us were together,” the actor added.
Sidharth also spoke about how losing a parent while raising a young child has changed his perspective on life.
“But they say you lose a parent and you gain a God and the gain of God has resulted in this blessing,” he said. “I always say it’s the good energies of our parents in the universe.”
The actor said the experience had also made him more conscious of the fleeting period when multiple generations of a family can be together.
“I recently went through it and I feel like it also reminds you that there’s a very short part of your life where you have you know your kids and your parents in the same room,” he said.
“It changes the priorities in my life. Of course I am very ambitious but what I value more has changed.” “I keep telling her (Kiara) as well like we have to value this phase of life where our kids are,” he said.
For the uninitiated, Sidharth lost his father this year in February.
Sidharth and Kiara, who married in February 2023 after falling in love while working together on Shershaah, welcomed their daughter Saraayah in July 2025. The couple announced in October that they are expecting their second child, sharing a picture featuring their daughter’s hand and a tiny baby sock.
They captioned the announcement: “Blessed once again with the greatest gift of all. Our hearts are so full of love and gratitude.”
IANS
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