The tragic life of Kabir Bedi (Sandokan)

Kabir Bedi's life is almost as exciting as that of the character he introduced to him: Sandokan. Tonight, the actor sits in the anthill to remember her.

Kabir Bedi fascinated an entire generation by playing Sandokan, The Malaysian Tiger, the classic character by Emilio Salgari, who became very popular in Spain in the mid-1970s. The Indian actor often traveled to our country to participate in dozens of Of interviews. 

Very attractive, with penetrating eyes of intense green color, he lent his physique to a legendary character who lived through adventures, tragedies, love, and loss: his character went through it all without losing his good looks. However, as he confesses in Stories I must tell: the emotional life of an Actor, an autobiography that he has just published and has already been translated into Spanish (Amok Ediciones), his life has also been full of troubles.

The darkest time of Kabir Bedi from his ruin to his son's suicide

The nineties were especially hard for him when his son Siddharta, the result of his first marriage with the classical ballet dancer Protima Bedi, with whom he had an open relationship, committed suicide in 1997, at only 28 years old. He suffered from schizophrenia. "I couldn't save him and I felt very guilty," he says. His other son is also an actor Pooja Bedi. Kabir Bedi assures, at 77, that he regrets not having spent more time with his children.

But the actor, with an Indian father – a descendant of the founder of the Sikh religious current – and a British mother, not only suffered for emotional reasons but also because of disastrous financial investments that led him to bankruptcy, at the same time as the death of his son. "I lost jobs, I didn't get my money back, I was emotionally devastated," he says. "We all have setbacks and suffering in our lives, but we can learn from the experience of others."

After his first wife's divorce, he began a relationship with Indian television star Parveen Babi, although they never married. According to Bedi, he suffered from mental disorders, but he did not want to accept her help. His body was found lifeless four days after he died, in 2005, after breaking his leg and suffering multiple organ failure. "It was a tragic and lonely ending," Bedi explains in his autobiography.

A childhood with the children of Indira Gandhi

The actor grew up in a wealthy environment. Among his friends were, for example, the children of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He began his acting career in the theater and then moved to Bollywood, the Indian film industry, in 1971. International success came with the Italian-produced television series Sandokan in 1980 and with appearances in films such as Octopussy, from the saga 007, embodying the villain Gobinda. In his heyday he participated in television hits such as Dynasty, Murder, She Wrote, and Magnum. Afterward, he continued his career in India, where he shot more than 60 films.

"Everything I have written in the book has come from my heart," says the actor. "I have nothing to hide, it's the truth," Bedi says that he has received offers to turn his life into a movie, but hasn't made up his mind yet. Of course, he has explained at the Valladolid Book Fair, which he attended this past Sunday, that his Sandokan character was so successful in Spain that he ended up devouring it.

"Sandokan touched the lives of millions of people in Spain, Italy, and all of Europe." But he never got tired of being that character. From one of his trips to Spain, he remembers the occasion when he wanted to flee from a shopping center full of fans who wanted an autograph, jumping over the cars in the parking lot.