#BigStory: The Movies or Babies Dilemma

Recently, we were stunned when Neha Dhupia made a startling revelation in one of her interviews that she had lost out on quite a bit of work – including an ad that required her to endorse a phone- just because she’s expecting a baby. Gosh! Do such things happen even today? It may be recalled that we had heard it loudly, way back 10 years ago in 2011, when Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan had to quit the film ‘Heroine’ (which was eventually done by Kareena Kapoor). In our #BigStory this weekend, let’s find out the answers to a host of questions revolving around the quandary that the married Bollywood ladies find themselves in. Can’t the pregnant lady be retained in the project and her shots be taken from angles where her bump is not so visible? Are heroines being made to sign No-Pregnancy Clauses, which had become the talk of the town after the industry started buzzing that Sanjay Leela Bhansali had asked Kareena Kapoor to sign one for ‘Ram Leela’ – that too sometime in 2011? Are today’s producers wary of investing in heroines who are married and especially those who are newly married? Let’s talk.
Advocate Vandana Shah says that a heroine checked with her on a No-Pregnancy Clause. “She wanted to know the pros and cons about a no-pregnancy kind of agreement she was making with a producer,” and adds, “But by the way, I have heard of many actresses finding themselves in a dilemma of what if they still get pregnant despite being careful in their love life and they’ve already signed on a No-Pregnancy Clause? But frankly, this only spells out that females who act in films are pawns in our patriarchal society. Think of it, this is an extension of having to look young all the time. If you observe carefully, you will see the same in remarriages where most men want women with no children from their first husband but it’s okay for them to have had a family from their first wife.” This reminds me of TV actress Dalljiet Kaur (divorced) who had told me at ETimes TV that men find it difficult to accept women who have kids, and she, for one, would never marry a man who is squeamish about her son from her marriage with Shalin Bhanot.

It was Smita Patil’s pregnancy but Govinda ditched the film

Producer TP Aggarwal (IMPPA President), however, is still insistent that married heroines should be made to sign a No-Pregnancy Directive. “Crores of rupees go down the drain if and when the heroine conceives. As time rolls by, she starts putting on weight and it’s impossible for her to look what she looked like when she started the film; this, in turn, disturbs the continuity. And no, it’s not possible to photograph her from far and wide angles”. Aggarwal puts forth a case that happened with him. “I was making a film with Dharmendra, Govinda, Smita Patil, and Mandakini. Dharamji was keen that I cast Smita. I was fine with that. But she got pregnant. After a few months, a horrible tragedy took her away from us, soon after she delivered Prateik. I brought in Shabana Azmi to do Smita’s part. But by then, Govinda had become a big star. He started troubling me for dates and he troubled me so much that I went on to shelve the film. I lost Rs 3 crore. Calculate that amount to today’s times and you will understand how much I suffered”.

Minissha Lamba counters that it is stupid on the part of the phone company that did not sign up with Neha. “It’s not just about films. Why discriminate against us in ads? Do pregnant ladies not use a phone? I think they need it all the more as they might need some emergency help in their day-to-day life; we need to care for our women. Should we or should we not?”

Are you planning a pregnancy anytime soon, Mrs Dahiya?


Minissha says that nobody checked with her whether she was planning a family when she was married to Ryan Thorpe (Minissha and Ryan later parted ways legally), but TV actress Divyanka Tripathi-Dahiya informs ETimes, when contacted, that producers have asked her this question quite directly. Says Divyanka, who recently finished as 1st Runner-Up in ‘Khatron Ke Khiladi 11’, “There is no HR policy or a maternity leave facility in our entertainment industry, especially TV industry. Believe it or not, once I was running a fever and I was told that I can’t take a leave because I had committed to a certain number of days, every month. Go to see, we are not respecting life. If at all we are respecting it, we are respecting it lesser than content! Imagine! Isn’t it time to work on that?”

Well, everybody is not Ekta Kapoor who went all out to continue shooting with Smriti when she was expecting her first baby during the making of ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’. ‘Shakti- Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki’ actress Kamya Panjabi offers, “That was very commendable on the part of Ekta; she allowed Smriti to shoot from her home. Ekta showed that a woman can continue working in the television world even while being on the verge of delivering. TV runs largely on the rapport that actors have with the production house”.
Further and more, the pregnancy matter, when it comes to heroines, is never so simple. It has several layers. Hence this story does not end just here.

Add all this to the embarrassment and losses that actresses undergo when fake news breaks out.

When Vidya Balan found herself ‘pregnant’

Vidya Balan, too, had found herself in a dilemma when rumours broke out that she had got preggers-and in fact they do so often in her case. Vidya herself had stated in an interview, “I have signed contracts which specify that I can’t get pregnant for the next two years”. But with recent media reports stating otherwise, the no-pregnancy clause has come under the spotlight again. Mukesh Bhatt, who was producing ‘Hamari Adhuri Kahani’ then, starring her and Emraan Hashmi, had reasoned, “It is mandatory to have a no-pregnancy clause as the actress needs to show her commitment towards a project. It is a healthy clause and is needed in today’s times.” Bet Vidya lost out on work because of such rumours. TV actress Mahhi Vij, now a mother of twins, said, “Such rumours of me had also done the rounds when I was NOT pregnant and I lost out on projects.” Geeta Basra chips in, “I, too, lost out on work for almost similar reasons. There was too much being written about my relationship with Harbhajan Singh. So, filmmakers were not just worried that I might get pregnant soon after marriage but believe me, they kept me out of projects just because they felt that I would soon have a matrimonial life.”

Is it not the media’s duty to check and cross-check the whispers?


This is where yours truly thinks the media comes in. Several sections of the media today, which are bursting to write anything and everything without confirming, get damn excited when they learn that an actress is in the family way. How much time does it take to send a message to the actress and check with her? Those who are not carrying will immediately reply. No actress wants to jeopardise her career. I have had several instances in my 21 years of journalism, where I have received a ‘No’ from them and not gone ahead with the story-Bipasha Basu and Sonam Kapoor being two such examples. The third case I remember was far more interesting when a colleague of mine said she was sure that Deepika Padukone was pregnant because she was throwing up at home and her father-in-law had driven off with her to a doctor. As an editor of a news portal, I didn’t believe in loose hearsay and I reached out to sources close to the ‘Piku’ star. The story did not see the light of day for obvious reasons.

Katrina Kaif’s trusted make-up artist Subhash Singh (who also produced the Shabana Azmi and Juhi Chawla-starrer ‘Chalk N Duster’) says that he begs to differ that producers are wary about kids being born midway through their projects to the ladies they’ve cast. “Today, it’s just the talent that counts. Looks and weight have become secondary.” But Tanuj Garg, producer of Taapsee Pannu’s upcoming film ‘Looop Lapeta’ does not dismiss the hard clause. “It’s a function of who you intend to sign and the likely situation with the artiste, so as to avoid interruptions.”

Do you have an answer to this tug of war?


So, it’s a coffee-toffee debate that can go on till the cows come home. Is side-lining married and/or pregnant actors nothing but cruel? Or, has money become more important than humanity?

Back to Neha. We are sure she’s looking at the clock restlessly. We are proud of her for not getting bogged down by the choice that she has made. We extend our best wishes to her and Angad Bedi for a safe delivery and a healthy baby.

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