From pregnancy announcements to documenting the journey, celebrity maternity photography has become increasingly personal and artistic. While black-and-white photographs are not new, Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh's latest pregnancy portraits have revived the buzz around the monochrome trend. On Google Search Trends, queries around 'Deepika Padukone photoshoot' saw a 5000% increase in the past week, while fans went gaga over the warm, intimate shots.
The absence of colour puts the focus on the changing body, expressions and emotions, making these photographs feel less like a fashion statement and more like personal keepsakes, say experts.
Avani Rai, who went behind the lens for Deepika-Ranveer's latest monochromatic maternity shoot, as well as in 2024, tells us, "I chose black and white to bring the images closer to intimacy. The moment already held enough and more emotions; I didn’t want to disturb that. I wanted to strip everything and just let the moment, their connection, and the feeling speak for itself."
Bollywood's love for black-and-white
Earlier this year, actors Randeep Hooda and Lin Laishram also shared a series of black-and-white maternity photographs. Actor Karishma Tanna, who welcomed a son with husband Varun Bangera in July, too opted for black-and-white portraits during pregnancy. Before that, Indian celebrities including Kareena Kapoor Khan, Bipasha Basu, Varun Dhawan, Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha went for this aesthetic.
Karishma says she didn't have a particular theme in mind for a pregnancy shoot, but the colour palette and mood board resonated because she wanted something "different and fresh". "When we put everything together, it looked good. I just wanted something a little out-of-the-box," she tells us.
Celebs inspiring photoshoots
{{/usCountry}}Karishma says she didn't have a particular theme in mind for a pregnancy shoot, but the colour palette and mood board resonated because she wanted something "different and fresh". "When we put everything together, it looked good. I just wanted something a little out-of-the-box," she tells us.
Celebs inspiring photoshoots
{{/usCountry}}As with most celebrity trends, such photoshoots are also filtering down to commercial portrait studios and photographers.
Maternity photographer Barkha Agarwal has been doing monochromatic maternity shoots for almost a decade. She says, "Of late, with more celebrities embracing monochrome announcements, I'm seeing far more mothers-to-be gravitate towards it too. They are drawn to how timeless and how real it makes their story feel," she says.
Delhi-based Richa Bhalla, who recently became a mother following a tough pregnancy journey, can't agree more. Recounting one such moment from her maternity shoot with her husband, she says, "There was this one quiet moment when we were just looking at each other and talking about how surreal it felt that we were actually waiting for our baby, which somehow we thought would never be possible for us. That moment wasn’t really posed. But when I saw the picture later, it became one of my favourites. The black and white pictures took away all the distraction of colours, clothes and styling... These are memories I would want to look back at years from now."
As specialist photographers, it is such raw emotions that they hope to capture. "When a couple is expecting, I always say it isn't just a baby being born; a mother and a father are born too. That transformation, the strength, the fearlessness with which a woman embraces her changing body is what I try to capture, not just click," says Agarwal, who worked with actors like Debina Bonnerjee and Pooja Banerjee during their pregnancy.