Smita Patil, remembered as one of Bollywood’s finest, left a lasting legacy despite her short life. She passed away shortly after giving birth to her son, Prateik, whom she had with veteran actor, Raj Babbar. Earlier this year, Prateik dropped ‘Babbar’ and adopted his mother’s name. In a recent interview, the Ekk Deewana Tha actor shared a heartwarming anecdote from when Smita worked with Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halaal.
Prateik remembers Smita Patil having lunch with the lightmen on the floor
In a heartfelt interview with Varinder Chawla on his YouTube channel, Prateik shared a story from Namak Halaal sets, where his mother Smita Patil, already a superstar, would eat lunch sitting on the floor with the lightmen. Her humility surprised her co-star, Amitabh Bachchan, who later told her that such gestures made other actors, including him, look bad as they ate in their vanity vans. Recalling the incident and how the actress responded, Prateik shared:
“Such a big superstar, Smita Patil, eating lunch on the floor. One day Amitabh Bachchan called her to the side and said listen you are screwing it up for people like us. Tum baithte ho neeche aise sab ke sath toh hum kharab dikhte hain kyunki hum nahi karenge toh hum kharab dikhenge. Humko bhi karna padega abhi. Hum bure lag rahe hain aapki wajah se. And she was bindaas, she was like, aap jao van mein, main kha rahi hu.”
Despite this intervention, Smita continued to have her lunch wherever she wanted, and these qualities made her an iconic superstar for her grounded nature. Recalling his moments on the Namal Halaal set with Smita Patil, Amitabh Bachchan shared in his blog a few years ago that the actress was very ‘uncomfortable’ during the shoot as she couldn’t understand what she was being asked to do in the film. The megastar wrote:
“She just could not understand why she was asked to do what she was asked to do in the film. But she did it with a lot of personal persuasion from me, and it came out fine. She was gentle and frail but stronger than anything you could ever encounter in a woman…truly a gift we lost we never should have.”
Prateik shared his reason for dropping his father’s surname
In the same interview, Prateik revealed why he dropped Raj Babbar’s surname and chose his mother Smita Patil’s name instead. He shared that he was born as just ‘Prateik’, and after a custody battle following his birth, he was raised by his maternal family.
A dispute over Prateik’s surname resulted in his passport listing ‘Smit Babbar’, which led some to mistake him for a Christian. He said he never felt connected to his father’s surname, and it was only after growing up and starting work that the emotional weight of his past deeply affected him. He said:
“I’m just thinking about what makes me and my soul feel better, and what makes my heart smile… 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… I’m striving to be like my mother and not like my dad. It feels like a new chapter.”
What are your views on Prateik’s revelations about Smita Patil’s habits on the sets of Namak Halaal?
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