Kareena Kapoor shares unseen pictures from her ‘year of the bump’; she walked the ramp and held on to her crown

 

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The first picture shows a pregnant Kareena Kapoor Khan striking a confident pose in a beautiful tiger-print swimsuit, simply captioned “2016.” The second photograph, dated December 24, was taken just four days after Taimur’s birth. It captures a tender moment of Saif Ali Khan feeding his newborn son, as Kareena looks on fondly. The third image is a quiet, intimate frame of the couple, with Kareena gently showing her baby bump. She captioned it, “We were three already.” Another standout from the post is Kareena’s iconic Vogue magazine cover, where she proudly wrote, “Yup three and half months in with my Tim.” This was followed by a glamorous picture with Karan Johar. Reflecting on the moment, Kareena added the text, “When they didn’t know I was pregnant.”

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The next image was a Filmfare cover featuring Kareena alongside Sonam Kapoor. Revisiting the memory, she fondly captioned it, “Veere’s.” A deeply emotional photograph followed — Saif Ali Khan at what appeared to be the hospital, cradling baby Taimur in his arms. Kareena humorously noted the moment with the caption, “When Dadi ji photo bombed and didn’t know.”

Another picture featured Malaika Arora, Karisma Kapoor, Amrita Arora, Saif Ali Khan and Salman Khan at a gathering. Recalling how close the moment was to her delivery, Kareena wrote, “48 hours before Tim was born.” The post also included a vacation throwback from the same year, where Kareena was seen dressed in an all-black outfit with wavy hair. Questioning her own style choice, she cheekily captioned it, “What’s with the hair?” This was followed by another holiday picture with Saif Ali Khan, which she captioned, “When in Rome…”

Towards the end, Kareena shared pictures from what appeared to be Diwali 2016 celebrations. In one frame, she posed with her family, while in another, Saif was seen affectionately holding her baby bump. The moment was simply and sweetly captioned, “Guarding the bump.”

This quickly attracted the attention of her fans with many flooding her comments section. A user wrote: “The year rules were rewritten.” Another wrote: “Won the trend.”

What happened in 2016?

In August 2016, Kareena Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan announced they were expecting their first child together. Almost instantly, the spotlight intensified. But instead of stepping away from it, Kareena chose to own it — and stay exactly where she was. At a time when actresses were expected to disappear from public life during pregnancy, Kareena continued to work. She attended events, promotional appearances and industry gatherings, and each public outing became a statement in itself. She was widely praised for not hiding her baby bump or softening her presence to fit conventional expectations.

One of the most defining moments of that phase came when Kareena walked the ramp as a showstopper at Lakme Fashion Week. In 2016, she walked twice — first for designer Rohit Bal at the Summer/Resort finale in April, and later, in what became an iconic moment, as Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s showstopper at the Winter/Festive finale in August, proudly flaunting her baby bump. She also became the cover girl of multiple magazines that sparked discussions around motherhood.

Speaking with Pinkvilla at the time, Kareena said, “I have always said, I will work after marriage. I got married and I am still working. Now I am saying I will still have a child and my work will never suffer.” And she lived up to every word.

That same year, she announced Veere Di Wedding and also starred in Udta Punjab. In a promotional event for Veere Di Wedding in 2018, Kareena recalled, “I got pregnant after signing the film, so I told Rhea (Kapoor, producer) about it and that they need to take someone else. As a producer, she stood by me. She decided to change the character to be pregnant. But then I told them that I can’t do this. However, it was Rhea’s conviction that she said, ‘Let’s just wait for some time’.”

On December 20, 2016, Kareena and Saif welcomed Taimur into the world. What followed was a mix of awe and controversy. While Taimur’s pictures quickly became the most adored images on the internet and dominated social media for years, his name sparked a nationwide debate.

Addressing the controversy in an interview with Miss Malini, Kareena said, “Of course, it affected me that people were talking about Taimur’s name. He probably doesn’t even know about the drama around his name. But, he also received lots of love for the fact that people were so interested in him. And I was like, ‘But, why?’ because people don’t know him and he is small. I think now, he will slowly understand. He is understanding that there is a whole culture where people follow him or he is being clicked.”

Years later, Kareena’s legacy from that phase has been followed by several actresses, most notably Alia Bhatt – who continued working through her pregnancy, actively promoting Brahmastra and refusing to step away from her professional commitments.