Pratik Babbar reveals he did Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na only for money: ‘I wanted to blow it all up with my friends’

Pratik Patil Babar made his acting debut with the 2008 hit movie Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. The film, which starred Genelia D’souza and Imran Khan in lead roles, turned 15 on July 4.  Although Pratik’s role as Genelia’s brother in the film was lauded by the audience, Pratik recently admitted that he took the project solely for money and to enjoy the acting fees with his friends.

In a recent conversation with Bollywood Hungama, Pratik shared his initial mindset, saying, “I had no idea what I was doing in the film! I was absolutely unprepared. I wasn’t worried about getting into a character, who my co-star is, kaun bada actor hai, kaun chota actor hai etc. Mujhe paiso se matlab tha. Mujhe Rs. 50,000 as acting fees milne waali thi and main woh paise apne doston ke saath udaane waala tha. That was my only motivation to do the film (laughs)! It was all thanks to Abbas Tyrewala’s patience and genius that he was able to extract the performance from me. I remember that he let me do my thing. Unhone mujhe zyada direct karne ki koshish nahin ki. He just made me comfortable. He told me, ‘Tujhe jaise bolna hai, tu bol’. I would state, ‘Sir, maine lines nahin padhe hai’. He would reply, ‘Theek hai. Abhi lines padh le’.”

Also read | Prateik Babbar adds Patil as his middle name, says ‘It’s part superstition, part sentimental’

Interestingly, Pratik’s lineage as the son of Raj Babbar and Smita Patel did not play a role in his casting for Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. In fact, it was only three weeks before the film’s release that co-producer Aamir Khan discovered about Pratik’s parents. Pratik shared, “Mr Aamir Khan wasn’t aware that I was Smita Patil and Raj Babbar’s son. He learnt about it three weeks before the release when there was a party. That’s where he found it and he made a big deal about it.”

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Pratik’s acting skills further impressed Aamir Khan’s ex-wife, Kiran Rao, who asked him to audition for Dhobi Ghat, which became his second film. Talking about the same, the actor said, ” Aamir’s ex-wife Kiran Rao at that time was auditioning for Dhobi Ghat. She saw me at the premiere of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. A week or two later, she called me and asked me to audition. I cracked the audition and bagged that film too.”

Since his debut, Pratik has continued his acting journey and was recently seen in the Netflix film Cobalt Blue and Zee5’s India Lockdown.