Prateik Babbar will soon be seen in Madhur Bhandarkar's upcoming film 'India Lockdown' and judging by the trailer, it seems like the actor is all set to deliver the best performance of his career so far. Prateik will be seen playing a migrant worker in the film who is forced to travel hundreds of miles on foot to his village during the initial phase of lockdown. In a recent conversation with PTI, he shared that he sees this performance as a tribute to his late mother Smita Patil.

Prateik says, "He (Bhandarkar) told me my mother would play such characters and if I do this, this will be a tribute to her. 'You can pay homage to Smita Patil', he said. I was sold and told, 'I am in, tell me what to do'. I immediately got interested in this film and role. I saw many films of my mother including 'Aakrosh', 'Chakra'. I also saw Shabana Azmi's 'Ankur', 'Do Bigha Zameen' and others. It was necessary to watch these films and understand the struggles of the characters."

Talking about how he prepped himself for the role, Babbar shared that he spent some time with migrant workers. He said, "I am a keen observer. I observed how they would walk, talk to their children, family, how they live their mundane life, and tried to understand their hardships. When I first met sir I went wearing shorts with blue hair. He didn't say anything but he and his team seemed stunned looking at me. I wore the costume, changed my hair colour and did the look test."

Also starring Aahana Kumra, Shweta Basu Prasad, and Sai Tamhankar, 'India Lockdown' is set to release on ZEE5 on December 2.