'The guilt killed me'

Says Prateik Babbar about his drug addiction, adding that speaking about it made him cope with it in a better way

Prateik Babbar, who battled substance abuse in 2013, opened up about his drug addiction like few do in Bollywood. He says he was marred by “guilt”, which made him go public on his personal life. Celebrities have often accused media for prying in their personal lives.

A different picture

Why did Prateik choose to speak publicly about the part of his life which could have easily been brushed under the carpet. Prateik, who is currently shooting for Anubhav Sinha’s Abhi Toh Party Shuru Hui, said, “I was being eaten alive by guilt, which is why I was ready to talk about my past. I was very guilty that I was an addict... especially to my fans and people who saw me and had this perception that ‘Achha dikhta hai, logon ko achha lagta hai (He looks good, appears to be a nice boy)’... They had a very different picture of me which was not true and it was killing me.”

Leading a dual life

Citing an example, Prateik, son of actor-politician Raj Babbar and the late actress Smita Patil, said he could not put up with being dual as he believed that the person giving interviews wasn’t the person he was in real life. “If I am talking to you, I am an addict. So obviously I am always high... Before this interview, I would probably be gone, I would be indulging in a substance and coming for this interview and you would be asking me all these nice things about me like how do you feel that so many