- Sidharth Bhardwaj revealed his childhood was marked by domestic violence and emotional conflicts
- His father was bedridden for five years after a fall from the sixth floor in Rohini, Delhi
- Sidharth's mother worked hard to support the family and later owned an advertising agency
Model-actor Sidharth Bhardwaj, who rose to fame after winning MTV Splitsvilla Season 2 and became the second runner-up on Bigg Boss Season 5, opened up about his troubled childhood, marred by domestic violence, emotional conflicts, and constant frictions. Sidharth recalled that his father used to hit his mother in front of his eyes despite the fact that she saved the family when his father was bedridden.
His Father Had an Accident, and Everything Changed
A traumatic incident changed the course of their lives. "When I was around 9 years old, someone threw my father from the sixth floor in Rohini, Delhi," Sidharth told Siddharth Kannan.
"After that, my father was bedridden for five years, with rods all over his body. My mother started working. My mother would wake up at 5 or 6 a.m., carry my father to the bathroom by herself, clean him, bathe him, put him back on the bed, cook for us, send us to school, and then go to work—9 kilometers away. She would save money by not taking a rickshaw so she could make mutton bone soup for my father. I remember asking her for a slingshot that cost Rs 7, and she would say, 'Not today, I don't have money.' That's the environment I grew up in," Sidharth said.
His mother stepped in to manage the crisis and worked hard to keep the family running, while his father became more violent due to the loss of his 'identity'.
"My father was a very disturbed man. Once he recovered, he actually had everything because my mother had built it all within 5–6 years. She had started with a job that paid Rs 900 a month, distributing advertising pamphlets, and six years later, my mom owned an advertising agency," Sidharth looked back.
"My mom created everything, but he couldn't accept it. He had been a gangster, then became bedridden, and when he got back up, life had completely changed. His wife was earning more than him; his children were growing, and he was struggling to find his own identity. So he became very violent. He punched my mother and knocked out all her teeth in front of my eyes. Every day felt like a struggle."
The violence kept impacting their lives.
"We would be asleep, and my father would wear his boots and kick my mother in the stomach while she was sleeping. We used to sleep with the door locked, but he would still do this again and again. We hid all of this from the outside world. At school, we would pretend everything was fine, hiding that we were being beaten at home and that we would be beaten again when we returned. In a way, we had already died back then. Now, we don't feel anything anymore," said Sidharth.
'My Father Was a Boxer, a Hitman'
Tracing back the origin of his father's violent nature, Sidharth said, "I was born in a village in Delhi called Chanderawal, which in the 80s was one of the most notorious villages when it came to gangsters. The four main gangsters of Delhi at that time were from Chanderawal. My father used to be their hitman because he was a boxer—Billu Boxer. These people ran the Delhi mafia."
After Sidharth was born, his mother decided she wouldn't raise her child in such a violent environment. Eventually, his father left the village, but he couldn't dissociate from his old ties.
"When I was born, my mother told him, 'Billu, we can't raise him here.' So my father left everything behind because he didn't want me growing up in that environment."
"He left physically, but mentally and emotionally, he never really moved on. My father moved out of a gangster village; his whole identity was tied to that life. Suddenly, he left all that for his child, but he couldn't fully detach. He would go back to the village every day and sit outside with his old friends," Sidharth narrated.
'I Didn't Feel Hatred Towards My Father'
Despite enduring trauma and violence, Sidharth never felt a sense of hatred towards his father.
At 16, he even hit his father with the chain of his dog.
"I have always considered my father a hero, even till his last days. No matter how much pain I've gone through, or whatever has happened in my life, he loved me a lot. I have never hated my father, never did, and I still don't. Even when he used to beat my mother, I didn't feel hatred. I just felt like, 'Please don't do this,' but I never hated him."
Sidharth's father later died of cardiac arrest; his sister Jaya Bhardwaj is now married to cricketer Deepak Chahar.
