Silk Smitha was the ultimate sex siren of south Indian cinema in the 1980s. The Dirty Picture, one of this year's most-talked-about Bollywood films and based on her life, opens on Friday. Sudha G Tilak recounts the phenomenon of Silk Smitha.
It all began in 1979 when Vijayalakshmi, a nondescript actress playing bit-part roles in south Indian films, became Silk Smitha.
She had played the role of a bar girl in a Tamil film, Vandichakkaram. The movie's sleazy drunks would call her Silukku, roughly translated as "oomph" in Tamil.
A minor filmmaker gave her the screen name of Smitha. Silukku then morphed into Silk, and the legend of Silk Smitha was born.
With her dusky looks and mesmerising eyes, Silk Smitha soon became the uncrowned queen of erotica, in a south Indian film industry where prurience was commonplace.
