The Comeback

Actor Prateik Babbar is looking up to a bright, new future as he bets on his 'second chance' at life, love, and success.

- Nandini Bhalla

There’s something immensely l ikeable about Prateik Babbar. At the Cosmo India Man shoot, the 36-year-old is unassuming and friendly, wil l ing to play around with his poses [read: he’s completely diagonal to the chair in one], and putting in the effor t to make everyone feel comfortable. You can sense a sense of decency in him.

But most of all, Prateik speaks about his life with absolute candour...a quality that deserves to be celebrated where words, and intentions, are heavily guarded. For instance, he talks about fame: “It means a lot to me, not because I want to be famous, but because I respect it much more now,” he tells us, and you can gauge this is backed by some serious introspection. “Early on in my career, I took everything for granted—fame, money, relationships, love, friendships, family...and then I learned my lesson, the hard way. So this is my second attempt at all those things.”

The young man, with what he calls an ‘old soul’, tells us about the difficult journey he has had through his life. But the resilience and hope with which he powers through has earned him deep wisdom...that is serving him well. It’s most evident in his work: Prateik’s recent release, Cobalt Blue—where he essays the role of an unnamed paying guest caught in a love triangle between a brother and sister—has been likened to a work of art. And his second movie, India Lockdown, where he plays the role of a migrant worker searching desperately for a way to get back to his village during the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, has already created a stir with its hard-hitting storytelling. “Every actor’s dream is to win an Oscar, but for me, I want to do justice to my mother's legacy [the late Smita Patil],” Prateik shares with us.