Samantha's maternity shoot is one photo on a sofa

Samantha Ruth Prabhu has done her maternity shoot, and it took one frame. She posted a picture of herself stretched out on a sofa against a pile of cushions, in a red printed kurta, white trousers and sunglasses, both hands resting on her baby bump. The caption: “Consider this my maternity shoot.”

It fits the way she has handled the whole pregnancy in public. Rather than one big reveal, she has been posting in instalments. A recent reel cut from squats in her first month to the same squats in her ninth, captioned “#9 . The final lap.” Another showed her husband, filmmaker Raj Nidimoru, assembling a floor stand for a baby monitor. The baby shower was held at the Isha Foundation, where she explained the Kalaa Aavarana ritual from the Srividya tradition, and Raj was photographed showering her with pearls.

Samantha, 39, first spoke about the pregnancy in June, at the success celebrations of Maa Inti Bangaaram in Hyderabad, and said she would take a maternity break once her commitments were done. She has since said the news surprised them both. “I’d reached a place where I was okay either way. Maybe we won’t have kids, maybe we will,” she said. “I was shooting the song Thassadiya when I found out. I had a little sickness while doing the steps. I guess everything just aligned.”

She and Raj met on the second season of The Family Man, worked together again on Citadel: Honey Bunny and married in a small yogic ceremony at the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore on December 1, 2025. Their first child is expected in December, though the couple have not announced a date.

The maternity leave has not kept her off screens entirely. The Celebrity MasterChef Tamil contestants recently surprised her with baby clothes, toys and bottles on set. Her next screen appearance after the break is the Netflix series Rakt Brahmand: The Bloody Kingdom.