Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
The late Smita Patel’s onscreen rivalry with Shabana Azmi was a prominent part of the parallel film industry back in the 1970s. However, a lesser known fact is that there was also a lot of mutual love and admiration. Smita’s son and actor Prateik Babbar’s recent revelation underlines that.
“I recently found out Shabana ji and Javed (Akhtar) sahab wanted to adopt me after my mother passed away. It was kind of complicated. I could’ve been Farhan’s (Akhtar) stepbrother (laughs). I find these new things about me all the time. Aur kya hai, batao (what else is there, tell me). It’s also very overwhelming. Ye hota toh main pata nahi kaisi zindagi jee raha hota (If this would’ve happened, I don’t know what kind of a life I’d be leading now),” said Prateik.
He continued in the interview with Zoom, “There are many things I hear about me as a child. There was a custody fight for me in the childhood. I was so little, just crying, I had no idea what’s happening with me. People wanted to adopt me.” He said all his mother’s colleagues had a soft corner for him.
“I’m very grateful for all the love she gets, and all the goodwill she has in the industry, among all her colleagues and friends. Shabana ji was definitely one of them, along with Javed sahab. Amit ji (Amitabh Bachchan) has always been very kind and supportive. I think everybody from her time, everybody she shared upon with, Naseer sahab (Naseeruddin Shah), Ratna (Pathak Shah) ji, the late great Shyam Benegal obviously. That was a different era. I recently found out about myself I was conceived on the sets of Mirch Masala (1987),” added Prateik.
Prateik is the son of Smita Patil and actor Raj Babbar. When they got romantically involved on the sets of Sisir Mishra’s 1982 romance Bheegi Palkein, Raj was already married to Nadira Babbar. However, he left his wife to marry Smita. Prateik was conceived on the sets of Ketan Mehta’s 1987 seminal psychological thriller Mirch Masala, which starred both Smita and Raj Babbar.
She died of childbirth complications in 1986 at the age of 31. After her demise, her parents raised Prateik. Prateik made his acting debut in Abbas Tyrewala’s 2008 romantic comedy Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na. He’s not been on good terms with his father and his family, and even chose not to invite them to his recent wedding with girlfriend Priya Banerjee on Valentine’s Day.
Shabana admitted there was a rivalry with Smita. ““What was broken was never repaired. But her parents were nice to me, and my parents were nice to her. In a strange way, after she passed away, I sort of became a surrogate Smita to her parents. Which baffled me, but it completed the circle. So I regret that I said uncharitable things about Smita. I really regret it. I wish I hadn’t done it,” she told Filmfare recently.
Click here to follow Screen Digital on YouTube and stay updated with the latest from the world of cinema.
