- By Aarushi Raina
- Thu, 22 May 2025 06:11 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Prateik Babbar has been in the news for speculation about a family feud, especially after the absence of his father Raj Babbar from his wedding. He got married to Priya Banerjee in February this year at his late mother Smita Patil’s house in Mumbai. He has been making some shocking revelations, most recent being about the custody battle his family had for him soon after his birth. He also shared why he decided to drop his father's surname and add Smita Patil to it instead.
Prateik recently in a conversation with Varinder Chawla's YouTube channel opened up about how he wanted to honour his late mother Smita Patil and how he was bitter about his parents. He 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. There was still a battle for the surname. Finally, in the passport, it was ‘Prateik Smit Babbar’. It wasn’t even Smita, so growing up I was ‘Prateik Smit Babbar’. In school, everyone thought I was Christian because they would wonder ‘why Smit?’, no one cared for Babbar. Everyone just called me Smit.”
Revealing how he was bitter about his parents and didn't want their surnames, the actor stated, "In my first film (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na), 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."
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Talking about about why he changed his name to Prateik Smita Patil, the actor shared he had a conversation with his wife Priya and then decided to go with it. The actor added, " had to embrace that name, it makes me complete. Now, I am complete, I feel complete. Priya said ‘Prateik, you owe it to her; she gave her life for you, you owe that, you are her son’ and that hit different. I was like ‘this is who I have to be’."
Recently, the actor also addressed the buzz of not inviting his father, Raj Babbar and half-siblings Aarya and Juhi Babbar to his wedding. He shared the actual reason behind it.
Talking about Prateik's family, he is the son of Raj Babbar and late actress Smita Patil, who got married in 1983. This was veteran actor's second marriage as he was preiviously married to Nadira Babbar and two shared children Babbar and Arya Babbar. Soon after the birth of Prateik in 1986, his mother passed away due to some complications. So, to honour her and her sacrifies for him, he tries to involve his mother in every way possible.