Silk Smitha: The Original Dirty Picture

Generations have sighed over those bubbling cocktail eyes, the curl of those luscious lips, the curve of that voluptuous body draped in a wet white sari--the ultimate sex symbol of the southern cinema in 90's, Silk Smitha, the most desired woman in the history of Indian cinema.

You may remember her as a softporn star but you would be fool to belittle her like that. She was a seductress (onscreen). Her each and every move, that longing gaze, flip of her hair, biting that lower lip oozed so much sensuality that even 1000 Mallika Sherawats put together would be able to manage.

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Such was the frenzy around her that almost every movie of that time included her sultry and erotic cabarets, irrespective of whether the story line warranted them or not. For her efforts and her rather ample, though supple bulk, she was also christened "Thundering Thighs".

She was the flagbearer of a revolution in southern cinema with her her song-and-dance and cabaret numbers in some 300 films. She went under numerous makeovers emulating the world's top sex symbols. So if she was Marilyn Monroe in film in the other she looked like she walked from the sculptures of Khajuraho to burn the screen.

Born Vijayalakshmi in Eluru, Andhra Pradesh, on December 2, 1960, Smitha was never meant for a common life. She left school after the fourth standard because she wanted to a film star. She was so determined that at the age of nine she moved in with her aunt in Madras, the centre of southern India's booming film industry.

In the beginning of her career she was regarded as a serious actress. She won acclaims for her performance in films like ‘Moondram Pirai’ (1982) and ‘Kozhi Koovuthu’ (1982) but it was her appearance in item numbers that shot her into incredible fame, because she was Silk Smitha, who was born to do something different from her contemporaries busy playing the miss goody shoes.

After garnering much acclaim with her first major role, in the Tamil movie Vandi Chakkaram (The Wheel), in 1979, Smitha assumed the name “Silk,” after her character’s name in the movie. Silk is also an anglicised word for "silku", used colloquially in parts of south India to mean an "endearing flirt with a touch of glamour", a sobriquet which suited her onscreen persona.

The onscreen persona which was draped in revealing, sequinned bodices and low-slung, tight-fitting saris, and made her the the pinup for 80s who was utterly desirable but just out of reach it seems.

We tried to research about her love life but got nothing major. A piece by filmmaker Velu Prabhakaran describing his relationship with Silk recieved quite a sharp reaction from media last year. The piece supposedly written by Velu gives vivid description of their high-voltage love affair which ended tragically when Velu left Silk for another woman.

She may not be happy personally but she aimed to be shine beyond her sex siren image as she moved, however disastrously, into producing movies. Two of her Telegu films flopped recently at the box office while the third, released earlier this month, was also a failure.

It is said when she killed herself in 1996. She succumbed to depression due to financial problems, disillusionment in love and an alcohol dependency. Is that a pattern with all the diva's is something to be researched but when we were researching of this piece we heard quite a shocking story at the time of her death. After the news spread of Silk's suicide, photographers from every nook and cranny swarmed her apartment in Chennai and a snapper actually asked to lower down the cloth covering silk's body to show some cleavage, for the final click.