‘I saw my whole family dead’: Actor Kamal Sadanah opens up on his father shooting mother, sister; he was hit too

Kamal Sadanah recalled the time when he was going through immense emotional trauma after he lost his entire family in a tragic accident.

Kamal Sadanah throwback


Kamal Sadanah was only 20 when his father shot his entire family. He was the only survivor.

Actor Kamal Sadanah made his debut in the movies in the 1992 film Bekhudi with Kajol but shortly before Kamal was seen as a mainstream hero, the actor had witnessed massive tragedy in his personal life. In a new interview, Kamal opened up about the time when his father, producer Brij Sadanah, shot his entire family and himself.

(This story can be triggering for people with mental health issues)

Kamal’s father, mother and sister died and even Kamal was shot in the neck, but survived. The actor said that he went through a “lot of mental trauma” after he saw his “family being killed in front of your eyes.”

Kamal, in a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, said, “I have always looked at it that way… I was also shot, I had a bullet go through one side of my neck and come out on the other side of my neck and I have survived it. There’s no logical reason for me to survive. It’s almost as if the bullet dodged every nerve and came out on the other side. There’s a reason why I survived it. Let me move ahead and let me find that reason, let me live well.”

Kamal said that his father was drunk when he shot everybody and also shared that it was his birthday that day. “It was a bad incident that happened but it doesn’t mean that my entire childhood or my family in their entirety were bad people or my father was a bad person… doesn’t mean that,” he shared. Kamal recalled the events of that day and said that he “carried my mother and my sister to the hospital while they were bleeding and at that time I didn’t realise that I was also shot. The hospital didn’t have enough beds so my friend took me to another hospital. I just told the doctor that you keep my mother and sister alive. I was also trying to check on my father.”

kamal sadanah news Kamal Sadanah made his debut with Kajol in Bekhudi.Kamal said that he also had to undergo surgery because he too had been shot so the doctors wanted to clean up his wound. “When I woke up, they took me home and I saw my whole family lying down dead in front of my eyes,” he said. Kamal said that for many years in the beginning, he did not celebrate his birthday but a few years ago, he threw one party and even though he still doesn’t like to celebrate his birthday, his friends show up on that day to cheer him up.

Kamal said that continues to live in the same house where this tragedy took place. “I am not the only person in the world who has seen tragedy. There are a lot of people in the world who have seen tragedy,” he said.

Kamal still appears in the movies in supporting roles. He was recently seen in Pippa in the role of Sam Manekshaw.