Prateik Smita Patil breaks silence on past rumours of being gay: ‘I would get hit on a lot because people thought I was available’

Actor Prateik Smita Patil recently broke silence on old rumours about his sexual orientation; he said that they might have intensified because he played a queer character in the film Cobalt Blue. In an interview with Bollywood Bubble, he shared that while many people assumed that he was gay, he is, in fact, straight. Prateik also revealed that he was often approached by gay men and said that Hollywood is more accepting of minorities.

During the interview, Prateik clarified that while he respects every individual’s sexual orientation, the speculations around him was untrue. He also recalled that it was the #MeToo movement in 2017 that changed the way people think. “Earlier in my 20s I was getting a lot of male attention. I was getting hit on a lot, it was quite direct in my 20s. Ab toh #MeToo aa gaya, hai log darr gaye hai thode se, phele toh sab khula khula the. Toh you have to handle the situation carefully and be very smart about it. I think that it was a lot of gay men thought I was gay and available,” he said.

It was his film Cobalt Blue that further fuelled the assumptions. However, he mentioned that actors in Hollywood are quite open and proud of their sexuality, unlike Bollywood. “When I did Cobalt Blue back in 2022, people presumed bi toh hoga hi ye. Gay nahi toh bi toh hoga hi ye. We are living in such times where it such a normal, its okay, unfortunately, being gay in Bollywood is a taboo. Hollywood toh sab ek dusre ko pasand karte hai. They are open and proud about their sexuality,” Prateik added.

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Besides Prateik, Cobalt Blue also starred Dr Neelay Mehendale, and Anjali Sivaraman. The film was adapted from the novel of the same name, which narrates the story of a brother and sister who fall in love with the same man and the turnout of events that damage their orthodox conservative family. It was written and directed by Sachin Kundalkar, who was embroiled in a controversy ahead of its release on Netflix. Prateik Smita Patil was last seen in the Nani starrer HIT: The Third Case.