Deepika’s ‘King’, Alia’s ‘Heart of Stone’ & More: Bollywood Actresses Who Filmed While Pregnant
From Deepika Padukone in ‘King’ to Jaya Bachchan in ‘Sholay’, these Bollywood actresses filmed memorable movies while expecting.
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Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Tu Mil Jaaye’ has acquired a fascinating behind-the-scenes story. According to reports published after the King song’s release, Deepika was five months pregnant with her second daughter, Devi, while filming it in Cape Town. The precise month remains a reported detail rather than an on-record revelation from the Bollywood actress. Her story joins a long history of actresses navigating film shoots while expecting.
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From rewritten characters and adjusted dance steps to pregnancies concealed by costumes, these productions had much more happening behind the camera than audiences could see.
1. Deepika Padukone
The new ‘King’ reports place Deepika in her second trimester, five months into her pregnancy with her second child, Devi. Directed by Siddharth Anand, the action thriller reunites her with Shah Rukh Khan and also features Suhana Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerji and Jaideep Ahlawat. It is scheduled for a theatrical release on December 24, 2026.
There are on-record stories from her first pregnancy, with daughter Dua, too. Rohit Shetty said she was four months pregnant when she returned for the final schedule of ‘Singham Again’. Released on November 1, 2024, the film introduced her as Shakti Shetty alongside an ensemble including Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff and Arjun Kapoor.
Nag Ashwin separately confirmed that she filmed two days of pick-up shots for ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ while pregnant. The science-fiction epic, co-starring Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan, opened on June 27, 2024. Deepika played the pregnant Sumathi, although her real pregnancy overlapped only with the final pick-ups – not the entire production.
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2. Alia Bhatt
Alia’s first pregnancy, with daughter Raha, coincided with a particularly ambitious career move: her Hollywood debut. In Tom Harper’s ‘Heart of Stone’, she played hacker Keya Dhawan opposite Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan. The action thriller premiered on Netflix on August 11, 2023.
Alia had recalled exhaustion and nausea in the early weeks of pregnancy, taking breaks when necessary and telling the production team about her situation. Gal Gadot, herself a producer on the film, responded warmly. Her accounts describe early pregnancy but do not establish one exact month for the entire shoot.
Her work during the pregnancy also included Karan Johar’s ‘Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani’, with Ranveer Singh, Dharmendra, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi. A July 2022 schedule wrapped while she was expecting; the film eventually released on July 28, 2023. There is an important distinction here: its snowy ‘Tum Kya Mile’ sequence was filmed four months after Raha’s birth. That widely discussed chiffon-saree shoot belongs to Alia’s postpartum return to work.
3. Kareena Kapoor Khan
Kareena has a ready-made family anecdote about ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’: she had joked that her younger son Jeh was practically in the film’s romantic song with her and Aamir Khan. She was around five months pregnant with her second child during the 2020 shoot, which also unfolded under pandemic restrictions. Speaking to NDTV, Kareena credited Aamir with looking after her and ensuring precautions, including repeated testing of the crew. She also recalled commuting between Pataudi and the Delhi shoot.
Directed by Advait Chandan, the film cast Kareena as Rupa opposite Aamir’s Laal, with Mona Singh and Naga Chaitanya in significant roles. It reached cinemas on August 11, 2022. The long gap between filming and release explains why a pregnancy associated with a 2022 film actually preceded Jeh’s February 2021 birth.
4. Neha Dhupia
Neha’s ‘A Thursday’ story stands out because the production adapted her character to her pregnancy. She had signed the film before expecting her second child, son Guriq. When circumstances changed, director Behzad Khambata made her police officer, ACP Catherine Alvarez, pregnant as well.
In an interview with The Indian Express, Neha said she was about six-and-a-half months pregnant when she started and almost 36 weeks along when she finished filming. That gives a fuller picture than the often-repeated description of an eight-month-pregnant actress playing an expecting cop.
She recalled difficult rain sequences and early call times, while also describing precautions and proximity to a hospital. Co-starring Yami Gautam, Atul Kulkarni, Dimple Kapadia and Maya Sarao, the hostage thriller premiered on Disney+ Hotstar on February 17, 2022. Her pregnancy became a visible part of the character’s working life.
5. Yami Gautam
Yami was expecting her first child, son Vedavid, when she completed portions of ‘Article 370’. Reports place the filming overlap in her first trimester. Crucially, the five-and-a-half-month figure frequently associated with this story refers to the February 2024 trailer launch, when she and husband Aditya Dhar publicly confirmed the pregnancy.
Yami said that most of the work remaining when she was expecting involved dialogue scenes. She thanked the doctors supervising her and the team supporting her, while acknowledging that the experience had been mentally demanding.
Directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale – not Aditya Dhar, who co-produced it – the political thriller featured Yami as intelligence officer Zooni Haksar. Priyamani, Arun Govil and Vaibhav Tatwawadi were among her co-stars. Released on February 23, 2024, it arrived before Yami and Aditya welcomed their son that May.
6. Jaya Bachchan
One of Sholay’s quietest scenes carries a lovely family footnote. When Amitabh Bachchan’s Jai returns the safe keys to Jaya’s Radha, she was pregnant with their first child, Shweta. Anupama Chopra’s making-of book, excerpted by Rediff, placed Jaya at three months pregnant on the first day of filming, October 3, 1973. Amitabh later recalled the pregnancy on ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’, joking that Shweta had therefore worked in ‘Sholay’ too. Ramesh Sippy’s film, featuring Dharmendra, Amitabh, Hema Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Jaya and Amjad Khan, released on August 15, 1975 – well after Shweta’s March 1974 birth.
Jaya also filmed Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Chupke Chupke’ while expecting Shweta. That comedy, co-starring Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore and Amitabh, opened on April 11, 1975.
7. Sridevi
For Urmila Matondkar, ‘Judaai’ created a connection with Janhvi Kapoor before Janhvi had even entered the world. Recalling the film on ‘DID Super Moms’, Urmila said Sridevi was pregnant with Janhvi when they shot one of its songs together. Sridevi was expecting her first child with Boney Kapoor. Urmila did not specify how many months pregnant Sridevi was.
Directed by Raj Kanwar, ‘Judaai’ starred Sridevi, Anil Kapoor and Urmila in a melodrama about a woman who agrees to let her husband marry a wealthy admirer. It released on February 28, 1997. Janhvi was born on March 6, less than a week later. Years afterwards, Urmila and Janhvi revisited the memory together, giving the film an unusually personal place in their shared history.
8. Kajol
The dance number in ‘We Are Family’ came with challenges audiences could never have guessed. Director Siddharth P. Malhotra recalled that Kajol was three months pregnant while shooting it, prompting changes to her dance steps. There were separate complications involving the production’s use of Elvis Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock’, meaning the team also had to rethink other elements of the number. The number therefore had to accommodate both licensing restrictions and its lead actress’s changing needs.
She was expecting her second child, son Yug, and played Maya, a mother confronting a terminal illness. Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Rampal co-starred in the official adaptation of ‘Stepmom’. The film opened in India on September 2, 2010; Yug arrived on September 13. Her performance and the family milestone belonged to the same eventful year.
9. Juhi Chawla
Juhi’s ‘Jhankaar Beats’ role had an unusual parallel with her personal life. She played Shanti, the pregnant wife of Sanjay Suri’s Deep, while expecting her own second child, son Arjun. Reports in The Times of India describe her as seven months pregnant during filming.
Sujoy Ghosh’s musical comedy, also starring Rahul Bose, Rinke Khanna, Shayan Munshi and Riya Sen, released on June 20, 2003. Its story of advertising professionals and aspiring musicians made room for domestic chaos alongside its much-loved soundtrack.
There is contemporary reporting from her first pregnancy, with daughter Jahnavi, too. A 2001 Rediff profile documented her filming ‘One 2 Ka 4’ and said she was nearing the end of her pregnancy by completion. Directed by Shashilal K. Nair and co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Jackie Shroff, that film released on March 30, 2001.
10. Hema Malini
Hema Malini personally recalled two shoots that overlapped with expecting her first child, Esha Deol. Speaking at a Bengaluru event in February 2025, she remembered being approximately five or six months pregnant while working on ‘Razia Sultan’.
Kamal Amrohi’s historical epic starred Hema as the Delhi ruler, alongside Dharmendra and Parveen Babi. It reached cinemas on September 16, 1983. The pregnancy belonged to its lengthy production period: Esha had already been born in November 1981.
Hema Malini later shared another memory on ‘Indian Idol 15’: filming ‘Bhagi Re Bhagi Brij Bala’ for ‘Rajput’ while eight months pregnant, with her costume helping conceal the bump. Directed by Vijay Anand, the film featured Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Vinod Khanna and Hema, and released on April 16, 1982.
11. Sharmila Tagore
Sharmila Tagore’s own recollection is more specific than many retrospective lists. In a 2018 interview, she said she was in the later stages of pregnancy with her first child, Saif Ali Khan, during ‘Safar’ and ‘Chhoti Bahu’, and remembered feeling quite unwell.
Asit Sen’s ‘Safar’, released in 1970, paired her with Rajesh Khanna and also featured Feroz Khan and Ashok Kumar. K. B. Tilak’s ‘Chhoti Bahu’, released in 1971, again brought her together with Rajesh, alongside Nirupa Roy.
Sharmila Tagore also recalled expecting her second child, daughter Saba, while making Deven Verma’s ‘Besharam’, which released in 1978 and co-starred Amitabh Bachchan and Amjad Khan. Her account includes the less glamorous reality behind such stories: continuing to work could also mean dealing with discomfort that never appeared in the finished performance.
