The Met Gala is one of the biggest nights in the fashion calendar, drawing the most prominent names from cinema, sports, business, and politics to the famous steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As the 2026 edition approaches on May 4, local time, the secrecy around the guest list has, as usual, fuelled intense speculation. Recently, the internet was buzzing with rumours that Deepika Padukone was in New York to attend the festivities.
Fuelling these rumours was a viral photograph allegedly showing her at a high-profile pre-Met Gala dinner. In the images, she is seen elegantly dressed in a green and black coloured kaftan gown. Some versions of the photos even showed her posing alongside other attendees, leading many fans to believe she had made a surprise appearance ahead of the main event.
However, a closer look reveals a different story. While these images successfully fooled a section of the internet, they are not real. The photos of Deepika Padukone at the pre-Met Gala dinner 2026 have been doctored using AI tools. Although Vogue did host a Met Gala 2026 Pre-Party on Saturday night, it is unlikely that she was in attendance.
According to various social media reports, Deepika is expected to skip the Met Gala 2026 entirely. While she has been a regular at the event in the past, attending in 2017, 2018, and 2019, she will likely not be seen on the red carpet this year.
Adding further clarity to her whereabouts, videos of Deepika from the sets of her upcoming film, King, have surfaced. On Friday, clips of Deepika shooting with Shah Rukh Khan in Cape Town began doing the rounds. More visuals from the South Africa set emerged the next day.
The film’s director, Siddharth Anand, even took to social media to address the leaks, urging fans not to share clips from the shoot. So, while the AI-generated photos of her in a kaftan gown were convincing to many, Deepika remains busy with her professional commitments in South Africa.
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