Prateik Babbar, now Prateik Smita Patil, is busy talking his heart out and expressing his love and admiration for his mother and his mother’s side of the family, who helped him. Lately, Prateik’s second wedding made a lot of clamour, as his father and the entire Babbar family were shocked that they were not invited to the same. After maintaining a dignified silence about the whole scenario, Prateik finally spoke about it and the reason for his name change.
Prateik Smita Patil shared his reason for dropping his father’s surname
Recently, in an interview with Varinder Chawla’s YouTube channel, Prateik was questioned about his new name and embracing his mother’s surname. He stated that he was born as Prateik, and after his birth, there was a custody battle fought between Raj Babbar and his mother, Smita Patil’s side of the family. However, the legal battle was won by his mother’s side of the family. Prateik said:
“I was born Prateik. There was a custody battle for me from my mom’s side of the family and my father’s side of the family. My mom’s side won.”
Further, Prateik expressed that there was a battle for the surname, so his passport has ‘Smit Babbar’ as his surname. So, people thought that he was Christian as ‘Smita’ became ‘Smit’, and he never cared about his father’s surname. Prateik further narrated that after he grew up and started working, the whole trauma came to him. He said:
“In my first film, my name was Prateik Babbar and then the devil got the better of me and I started thinking ‘Kaun hai maa? Kaun hai baap? (Who is mom? Who is dad?)’ Then I started thinking, ‘I don’t want to be Patil, I don’t want to be Babbar. I want to be just Prateik.’ For a few films, I was only Prateik because I was bitter about my parents. I was like, I don’t want to belong to them. They have only given me trauma my entire life. I don’t want to belong to them and then I continued with Prateik.”
Prateik Babbar’s reason for changing his name to ‘Prateik Smita Patil’
Earlier, in an interview with The Times Of India, Prateik Babbar and his wife, Priya, made shocking remarks. Priya went on to say that Raj Babbar was never in Prateik’s life. The actor stated that he wants to embrace his mother’s identity and let go of his father’s name. He further added that he isn’t worried about the challenges it could bring him. The actor said:
“I’m not thinking of any of that. I’m just thinking about what makes me and my soul feel better, and what makes my heart smile, not thinking if it will negatively affect my career. I don’t care about the repercussions. All I care about is the way I feel when I hear that name. I need to be wholly and solely associated with my mother (Smita Patil), her name and her legacy. I don’t think any other name needs to taint that legacy, if you understand what I mean. It needs to just be her name and her legacy. That’s what I’m striving to be. I’m striving to be like my mother and not like my dad. It feels like a new chapter.”

What do you think about Prateik’s shocking revelation?
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