Kamal Ghorui
Trigger Warning: This article contains sensitive content and may be distressing for some readers.
Smita Patil is remembered as one of the finest actresses that Hindi cinema ever saw, with films like ‘Mandi’, ‘Arth’, ‘Ardh Satya’ among many others. Fans still continue to remain upset about the fact that she passed away too soon. The actress passed away at the age of 31, few days after she gave birth to her son Prateik. Smita was married to Raj Babbar, who was earlier married to Nadira in 1975. Later, he fell in love with Smita and tied the knot. A while ago in an interview, veteran make-up artist Deepak Sawant had opened up emotional moments when Smita passed away. He said in an interview with Pooja Samant on Reel Meets Real, “Smita Patil used to say mujhe suhagan banake leke jana (I should die a married woman.) I used to scold her to not say things like this. She used to say this even to her mother who would also scold her.”
He spoke about the heart-wrenching moment when he did Smita’s make-up on her funeral. He recalled, “After she passed away, her sister was coming from Chicago and she took 2-3 days to come. During this time, her body was kept on ice and it had swollen,” he said.He further revealed, “Her mother gave me a make-up kit and Amitabh Bachchan and other people were sitting there. She gave me the make-up kit in front of them and told me that it was her wish to go as a suhagan. I started crying and I did her make up while I was tearing up. I did her last make-up and I made her look very beautiful on her last day.”
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Prateik has recently changed his surname from Babbar and is now called Prateik Smita Patil, to honour his mother’s legacy.
