Prateik Babbar opens up on losing Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, his marriage ending and finding love in Priya Banerjee
3:54 PM
Posted by Fenil Seta
Vinay MR Mishra (BOMBAY TIMES; December 14, 2023)
Nestled in the bustling Carter Road of Bandra, Mumbai, actor Prateik Babbar’s sea-facing abode is a gift to him by his mother, actress Smita Patil. Prateik grew in the very house with his maternal grandparents. “It was very different then,” the actor states, revealing that he redesigned the place all by himself. “Not many know but I like to design interiors. I love visual aesthetics,” he mentions.
As Prateik sits down, basking in the gentle lull of the Arabian sea’s whispers, he peels back the layers of his life. He ventures into his formative years, tainted by the shadows of addiction, to his tumultuous journey through matrimony and the newfound love. Excerpts of the interview as followed:
'It was hard growing up'
“I was a very happy kid but a big brat. I could never see a straight face in a picture. My nani would always say, ‘Vakda tond nako karu’. But it was also hard growing up, trying to understand where my parents are? But I had a lot of fun with my grandmother. She spoiled me. I remember she would wake up every morning by calling me Chew – it means sparrow. I was her sparrow,”
Prateik reminisces. The actor was quite close to his grandmother. Her demise was the “most difficult time” in his life. “I knew everything will change once she was done. And it did for the better. It was an overnight decision for me to not be slave to drugs and alcohol,” he states.
'I do think that life has been extremely unfair to me'
Prateik has been vocal about his tryst with substance abuse. “Addiction is a disease. I almost lost myself,” he says. At the age of 18, Prateik was "tricked" by his family to a rehabilitation center. "I was obnoxious, nobody could talk to me. I was always intoxicated. So, they had to trick me to get into rehab. And rehab was difficult. I remember waking up in a rehab in a bed, in a straitjacket. I was just screaming, crying. I was 18 and it scared me. It was dark, I was suicidal. I wanted to be with my grandmother. ‘I just want to be with you maa,’ is all I would cry. It was painful,” Prateik shares.
The second time drugs re-entered Prateik’s life was when he was 25, fresh off the debacle of his film
Ekk Deewana Tha and nursing a heartbreak with actress Amy Jackson. “Back then I was straight out of a heartbreak. That was a widely reported relationship so it was terrible. There was an avalanche of emotions. I was feeling life was unfair to me. Even today, I do think that life has been extremely unfair to me. It took away the most precious emotion a child can have,” he recalls.
'Still disappointed that I lost Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'
During his second row with alcohol and drugs Prateik recalls on losing out on several projects: “I felt like the industry was being unfair to me. When I slipped back to self-destruction the films were getting shelved as I was too drugged up to say my dialogues or show up on set. Then I had a slump in my career. Everything was just so fast, I didn’t understand. It was overwhelming for me. Everything, the politics, the vices, and then I crashed, everything came crumbling down.”
However, for Prateik the most disappointing loss was two years before him slipping into drugs. “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,” he names, adding, “I was locked to play the role of Milkha. I remember Ranveer Singh walked out of the audition room, and I walked in. They just stopped the audition as they found what they were looking for. I started readings with Prasoon Joshi. I was shooting in Udaipur for Aarakshan
and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, came to see me. When it came to locking the commercials, my then manager told me they would handle it. I was 23-year-old, I didn’t know what to talk about money. But my agency ghosted them. Three weeks later I found out Farhan Akhtar was doing it. I am still disappointed."
‘I was an absolute mess for a long time after my marriage ended’
Prateik married Sanya Sagar in 2019, however, soon the two decided to split. Prateik has never opened up about what went wrong in that marriage. He, however, shares, “We were in love. That’s why we married. I want to give that relationship all the respect that it deserved. We were two different people. We didn’t have time to figure each other out. And I think it is extremely important to figure each other out before you jump into a marriage or something concrete. It (The marriage) was rushed. There was some family pressure. I was 32, and I wanted to have kids by 35.” Prateik and Sanya’s divorce came through on January 31 earlier this year.
Calling the divorce “complicated”, Prateik adds, “It was heartbreaking. I was an absolute mess for a really long time. I got married for all the wrong reasons. We thought we would figure out love and compatibility on our way. (But) It doesn’t work like that. You need to figure out everything before. Emotional frustrations led to bad choices and decisions. I felt betrayed in my marriage. But (in retrospect) if that marriage had not failed, I wouldn’t have met the woman in my life today.”
'I am so blessed to have Priya'
The woman in Prateik’s life is actress Priya Banerjee. The two have been seeing each other since 2020, however, they only made the relationship official earlier this year on Valentine’s Day. “I am so blessed and fortunate to have Priya. I have made so many mistakes, but I must have done something right for such a wonderful woman to come in my life. I was separated, going through divorce and Priya had broken off her engagement. It was then, when I slipped into her DMs in 2020. When we kissed first, it was game over. I knew it (she is the one). I was hesitant initially due to my divorce and how complicated it was. But she is my home. I am more obsessed with her,” he signs off.
This entry was posted on October 4, 2009 at 12:14 pm, and is filed under
Amy Jackson,
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,
Ekk Deewana Tha,
Farhan Akhtar,
Interviews,
Prasoon Joshi,
Prateik Babbar,
Prateik Babbar interview,
Priya Banerjee,
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra,
Sanya Sagar
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