Prateik Babbar in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s My Friend Pinto

Prateik Babbar will star in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s My Friend Pinto, that will go into production later in 2009.

Photo: Prateik Babbar at the Lakme Fashion Week

My Friend Pinto will be directed by Raghav Dar, who was the assistant director of Guru and associate director of Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na.

The story of My Friend Pinto will be penned by Raghav Dar and Arun Sukumar.

Raghav Dar is also the writer of the upcoming Lamha, that will be released sometime in 2009. The movie stars Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, and Anupam Kher.

My Friend Pinto will be released in 2011.

Sanjay Leela  Bhansali’s next is Guzarish, starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. The movie will be released in 2010.

Bhansali is also working on Chenab Gandhi, starring Amitabh Bachchan, John Abraham and Vidya Balan.

Prateik Babbar was last seen in a cameo role in the 2008 hit, Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na. His performance drew gushing reviews, which is a bit surprising considering his performance, while good, was hardly earth-shattering.

I don’t know how much of it was because Prateik is Smita Patil’s son, a wonderful actress who passed away when he was born. Maybe I am being unkind here, but in India, any public figure who dies, gets practically canonized, and his offspring is honorarily adopted by the whole country.

Of course, it doesn’t take away from the fact that Prateik Babbar definitely has screen presence but he has a long way to go.

He will be next seen in Kiran Rao’s Dhobi Ghat with Aamir Khan.