Actor Prateik Babbar, who has always been in the limelight for being the son of late legendary actress Smita Patil and politician-actor Raj Babbar, has now officially changed his name to Prateik Smita Patil. In a deeply emotional and personal conversation with The Free Press Journal, Prateik opens up about why he decided to drop his father’s surname and embrace his mother’s name—fully, proudly, and permanently.
“Entire life, strangely, I’ve been struggling with an identity of who I am and who I belong to, and finally I have realized who I am, and I belong to my mother, and I feel complete,” he shares.
“Now I’m complete. I’m Prateik Smita Patil. I’m complete. I am content and I’m proud to have her name, her entire name with me. Also, I owe it to her. She gave her life for me. She lost her life for me. There was nothing in this world that woman wanted more than to be a mother and to be my mother. There was nothing more she wanted than to live a life with me. And she couldn’t. And that’s sad so this is the least I could do. I owe it to her.”
Prateik entered the film industry with the name Prateik Babbar but the inner turmoil continued. “I realised that I don’t want to be associated with either of my parents. And then I was just Prateik for a little while. And then my grandparents passed away. So then I kind of reconnected with my father because I think I felt like I had nobody. I had no family. I just felt like he’s my only parent. So I kind of reached out. And then I was Prateik Babbar again.”
But even then, something didn’t sit right with him. “But then I thought 'my mother is such a huge part of my life and my identity, why is she not a part of my name' So then Prateik Babbar became Prateik Patil Babbar, that played along. And then again, it just isn’t feeling right for me.”
The final decision came just before his wedding. “Just a few months before the wedding, I think it was Priya (Banerjee) and I were talking. I think we got a little emotional and I started missing my mother. She got emotional as well. And we were discussing 'what can I do for her?' And Priya was like, 'why don’t you just embrace her entire name?' And I said, 'you know what? That just sounds like the right thing to do. I owe it to her. I owe it to that woman who lost her life for me. I owe it to her.' So now, I am Prateik Smita Patil. And I am so, so content and I feel so complete when I hear that name.”
Talking about people judging him for dropping his father Raj Babbar's name, he said, “People keep saying I dropped my father's name. I haven’t dropped anything. I’ve just embraced my mother’s name. It doesn’t change who I am. It doesn’t change my parents. It doesn’t change anything. I’ve just embraced my mother’s name and I feel extremely happy about it. And I feel complete and content.”
