Prateik did not invite father Raj Babbar to his wedding. (Photo: Prateik Smita Patil)
Smita Patil and Raj Babbar’s son Prateik grew up with his maternal grandparents as his father reunited with his first wife after Smita died due to childbirth complications. Prateik, in the last many years, has been vocal about the emotionally turbulent relationship he shares with his father and while it seemed like they were on their way to mending things, Prateik decided to not invite his father to his wedding with Priya Banerjee in 2025. At the time, his half-siblings made a few comments about the same, and later Prateik addressed those comments as well, but since then, it seems like he has kept his distance from his father.
Prateik says ‘people don’t know the truth’
In a recent interview, Prateik and his wife Priya were asked about how trolls attacked them when they decided to not invite Raj to the wedding and while Priya said that they were too busy to care about trolls, Prateik suggested that there might be more to the story.
“People don’t know the truth. Some people from the industry know the truth, some don’t and the general public…” Prateik told Miss Malini and added, “But one day, everyone will get to learn the truth. In a story, or a book, or an interview, or a film.” Priya said that the experience made them stronger as a team and shared, “I think life has thrown a lot of tests right before we got married, just to see if we would last and we are like ninjas. I think every problem that has come our way, we have not reacted like ‘Ab kya hoga?’. We looked at each other and we got each other.”
‘90% of Bollywood marriages are fake’
In another chat, Prateik and Priya talked about the institution of marriage as Priya declared that “90 percent of the Bollywood marriages are a facade, and I know that because I am on the inside.” Prateik nodded along and said, “It shows.” Prateik then brought up Twinkle Khanna’s comment ‘raat gayi baat gayi’ when she spoke about physical infidelity on her talk show and said, “If married people are saying ‘raat gayi baat gayi’, you know what the situation is.”
Priya added that she judges the yesteryear actors who share such opinions because she believes that as Indians, this is not our culture. Priya grew up in Canada and identifies as a Canadian. “The yesteryear actors, when they say stuff like that, I am judging you. As a Canadian, I am judging you because you are supposed to be Indian, this is in your culture but when you see these people who are married for the image… Don’t get married. Do your career, have affairs, respectfully be honest with people. In my country, they do it like that,” she said and added, “Our culture is way stronger than Bollywood and India. Here, people see marriage as a joke.”
Prateik finished his wife’s thoughts and said that cheating is “out of fashion.” “I think cheating, infidelity, multiple partners, it’s out of fashion. It’s not cool. Having a wife and a girlfriend is not cool.”
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Prateik and Priya are currently promoting their music video “Ishq Fakir.”
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