Prateik Babbar: When you are young, you tend to be misguided

Prateik Babbar

Bollywood actor Prateik Babbar, who is playing the character of a terrorist in the upcoming multi-starrer film Mulk, says youngsters tend to get brainwashed and misguided easily and as he is growing mature, he is becoming wiser and a better creative person by heart.

Asked if he has taken some reference from his own life to play the character of Shahid, a young Muslim boy, Prateik told IANS: "I went through an internal process to build the character in my head before performing it and yes, I took some reference from my own life. "The character Shahid is a misguided youth, like I was, for the different reason. The fact is, when you are young, if you are mingling with wrong people, you tend to be misguided. You tend to be brainwashed easily."

The actor who went through a solid preparation to get the insight of the world of budding terrorists and how they get trained, also added: "It is unfortunate that they do not understand that they are committing a crime by killing people. "For them, this is the path to get connected to the Almighty. Is this is the right thing to do? they lose their logical thinking. It was a tough process for me to play the character but the challenge is fun!" "

Mulk features some iconic actors like Rishi Kapoor, Ashutosh Rana, Neena Gupta, Manoj Pawa, Kumud Mishra among others, and according to Prateik, it was quite intimidating to perform with a star cast like that. "Oh, God! It was so intimidating and nerve-racking! I mean they are working for years, their performance level is so high that I was on my toes all the time just to do, at least my level of best performance. Otherwise, I would look so out of placeaI used to irritate Anubhav sir for his feedback," said the son of the iconic actress Smita Patil.

Starting his career with the film Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Prateik received a lot of appreciation for his acting skill at the beginning of his journey. However, he went through a rehab treatment as he was battling substance abuse.

In 2015 he made his feature film comeback with Umrika that received positive response in Sundance Film Festival. Asked about if he identifies with the Prateik he was at the beginning of his career, he said: "Well, I have transformed, but I sure can identify with that young lad. I think I have grown as a better actor, I have learnt more about people and professionalism. I have learnt to respect others opinion more."

Mulk is releasing on August 3.

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