Tertiary sediment loading on the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous passive-margin rift fills in the offshore Krishna-Godavari basin generated different episodes and patterns of mobile, shale-cored structures from the Paleocene to Pliocene. The Paleocene–Eocene shales in the deeper shelf and upper slope areas moved as a series of thrust slices, whereas the younger Miocene–Pliocene shales moved as individual bulges (diapirs). Lithological variability and shifting depocenters, prevailing tectonic conditions, and available space in the system for translation in space and time all influenced the spatiotemporal distribution of the shale-cored structures. A relation is also observed between the location of the toe thrusts and shale diapirs, and the basement highs and escarpments. Two-dimensional palinspastic restorations, incorporating all the above variables, confirm the linkages between the sediment depocenters, growth faults, and mobile shales in the Krishna-Godavari basin.