Known for her vivacious avatars on the big screen, Southern beauty Silk Smitha never shied away from shedding layers of clothes for the camera during the 1980s, when it was considered a big NO.
Silk’s heart wrenching suicide in 1996 was a tragic reaction to depression, alcoholism and an unhappy love life. Born as Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, her name changed to Silk Smitha after the Tamil movie Vandichakkaram in 1979.
She was found dead in her apartment in Chennai where she reportedly committed suicide. A movie dedicated to the actress’ life was released in 2011 which starred Vidya Balan. Directed by Milan Luthria, the film was called The Dirty Picture.
On her death anniversary today, take a look at these unknown facts about Silk Smitha:
– The actress worked at a flour mill before her stardom. She was discovered by director Vinu Chakravarthy who also gave Silk her second name ‘Smitha.
– Silk came from a poor family and therefore, could not even complete her primary education.
-Silk started her career as a makeup artist before acting in films. She was a touchup artiste for an actress, who helped her get many movies later. Besides this, she also did some supporting roles in movies with stars like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.
– Silk later learned how to dance and speak in English from director Vinu Chakravarthy’s wife.
– Silk worked in about 450 films in many language movies including Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.