The Tragic Life of Silk Smitha
The Tragic Life of Silk Smitha
Known as the “Marilyn Monroe” of Indian cinema, Silk Smitha was a famous south Indian movie star who ruled the South India box office in the 1980s. She was also known as the 'queen of sensuality.
“Silukku! Silukku!” (Silk, Silk)
In the 80s and 90s, the South Indian Cinema scene was ruled by Mohanlal, the undisputed superstar of the movie business. In a slew of superhits, he cemented his indomitable position and ensured that no other actor, male or female, came within striking distance of his stardom.
All except the voluptuous Silk Smitha, also called the Marilyn Monroe of Indian cinema.
An incredible example of Silk’s popularity can be seen in the 1995 Malayalam hit ‘Spadikam’ in which superstar Mohanlal was pitted against Silk Smitha as his love interest. The moment Silk came on the silver screen, the audience went berserk and started hollering “Silukku! Silukku!” as Mohanlal gets entirely overshadowed by the simmering sensuality of Silk Smitha, who is still remembered 23 years after her death by millions of her fans by a three-letter word- si-lu-kku.
In a long and eventful career of over 17 years, Silk acted in over 450 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, and Hindi languages. Her sensuality, clothes, dancing, and numerous affairs hypnotized her fans as they thronged the cinema halls panting for more and more of the dusky superstar. As film historian Theodore Bhaskaran says,
“Ensuring the male gaze is very important in Tamil cinema, and Smitha brought loads of it. Smitha did not have much acting talent, but when it came to oozing eroticism, she had very few peers. If Smitha said 'let's go to the temple,' it would sound erotic."
On September 23, 1996, Silk committed suicide by hanging herself. However, her death has remained mysterious and unsolved for more than two decades after the tragedy. In 2011, she was immortalized in celluloid by actress Vidya Balan. The latter played the role of Silk Smitha in her blockbuster biopic “The Dirty Picture," which broke all box office records, winning multiple awards.
The Birth of Silk
Silk was born as Vijayalakshmi in a poor Telugu family in a small village named, Kovvali in Andhra Pradesh. The family’s financial condition was so bad that Vijayalakshmi had to leave education after the 4rth form to start helping her mother with household chores.
Then at 14, her parents married her off without her consent to a factory worker. It was an unhappy marriage with an abusive and drunken husband on one side and indifferent parents on the other who were oblivious of her suffering.
After two years of misery, Vijayalakshmi decided to change her life forever. She escaped her abusive marriage and came to Chennai to live with her aunt. There she started working as a touch-up artist. She also tried her luck in movies and could not get anything beyond a few minor roles.
However, her luck changed one day when acclaimed film director Vinu Chakravarthy spotted her at a movie set. He is bowled by her seductive appeal, dusky complexion, and seductive eyes and immediately took her into his acting school. She was taught dance, acting, and etiquette classes and rechristened as 'Smitha.'
In 1979, Smitha got her first superhit Tamil film ‘Vandichakkaram,' in which she portrayed the character of a bar girl named Silk, who enthralled the audience to such an extent that she came to be known as "Silk Smitha."
Smitha continued to give sizzling performances in the coming two decades, wooing the ever-hungry audience, thus becoming the most sought-after sex siren in the movie industry of the 1980s.
Silk Becomes Famous
The 1980s movie industry was patriarchal, with women denigrating to only two types of roles- the "good" woman and the "bad" woman. The good woman was a family-loving woman who would be pious and chaste and play a supporting role to her husband and son. On the other hand, the bad woman would be a home breaker, wear revealing clothes, and be unapologetic about her body or actions.
Silk played the bad woman and played it with such finesse that the male chauvinistic industry became putty in her hands. She accepted that she would be treated as a sex object, but nobody else except her would dictate the rules of the game. Over the next two decades, Silk became an unstoppable tornado, acting in more than 400 films in southern and Hindi languages.
No movie was deemed complete or even superhit without her item numbers, as her garish makeup, short dresses, and shimmering tassels became permanent fixtures in every film.
Silk broke the woman stereotypes prevalent in mainstream cinema as she commanded the highest fees any woman had ever received in the history of South Indian movies till then. As film historian and writer Randor Guy says,
"In the 1980s, she commanded a fee of 50,000 rupees ($800) per day for an appearance in a song sequence. No other heroine rivaled it,"
Silk’s Death
Despite the fame, Silk was a lonely introvert surrounded more by fake people who wanted to take advantage of her than genuine well-wishers. After multiple failed relationships in her personal life, Silk began to find comfort in alcohol and drugs and soon drowned in depression. In the mid-1990s, Silk entered into a much-publicized live-in relationship with a married doctor, which also failed like her other relationships.
On September 23, 1996, Silk Smitha was found dead at her Chennai apartment. The actress hung herself from the ceiling fan of her apartment. She was only 35 at that time. According to a post-mortem report, Silk had a high alcohol content in her body and was suffering from depression.
Though the reason behind her suicide remains unknown, it is believed that she took this drastic step due to disillusionment in love. A suicide note was recovered from Silk Smitha’s home. The person responsible for her suicide could not be identified as multiple names featured in the note. As her friend actor Ravichandran recalls in one of his interviews,
"I was busy shooting that day (September 23, 1996) and was surprised to see Smitha trying frantically to reach me a few times. I tried to speak to her, but the call never got through due to poor connectivity. I thought it was a routine call. However, to my horror, I realized that Smitha had killed herself the next day. I shudder to think of what could have been the reason for her call. This haunts even me now."
She was glamorous, ambitious, and the unapologetic “queen of sensuality" to the world. But the true Silk was just an ordinary small-town girl who craved for true love and instead got deceit and infidelity in the bargain. Her name would always be written in golden letters in the humongous annals of Indian cinema.
Sources
· Silk Smitha’s death continues to be a mystery even after 24 years
· Silk Smitha – What Led to The Untimely Death of The Glamourous Actress!
· Silk Smitha's last letter before death expressing her tragic life goes viral after 25 years
· 23 years without Silk Smitha, the seductress with a story
· Silk Smitha: South India’s Ill-Fated Superstar
· Silk Smitha: South India's ill-starred film siren