Smita Patil, who was one of the most celebrated actors of her time, died of complications due to childbirth. She welcomed her son Prateik with actor Raj Babbar on November 28, and on December 13, 1986, she breathed her last at the age of 31. In a recent interview, veteran film journalist Bhawana Somaaya opened up about Smita’s last days and recalled that she was “always in frail health.” She also recalled how Smita’s health went in a downward spiral quickly and before they knew it, she had passed.
In a chat with CNN-News 18, Bhawana recalled Smita as a “normal girl, a normal woman in love, and a normal woman who had given birth to a child.” She shared, “Smita was always in frail health, health was an issue with her and therefore, she was wanting to spend time with her baby, and probably, she had some kind of intuition that her health was taking over the problem and things just happened so rapidly.”
Bhawana shared that she was at a fundraiser when Smita took ill, and by the time she reached home, she got a message that “Smita was in the hospital.” “By the afternoon, before I could reach the hospital, I was given inclination that she is in the ICU on the ventilator,” she shared.
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In a recent interview, Prateik shared that soon after his mother’s death, there was a battle for his custody between his father’s side of the family and his maternal grandparents, which was eventually won by the latter. In a video shared on Varinder Chawla’s YouTube channel, he shared, “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’.”
Prateik, who now goes by Prateik Smita Patil, earlier went by Prateik Babbar. He shared, “In my first film, 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.” He eventually made peace with his name.
