Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati, who rose to fame with her stage name Silk Smitha, appeared in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi movies. She broke the stereotype of obedient female characters. Silk Smitha started her career as a makeup artist. Later, moved on to play courageous roles on the big screen. She even featured in various popular dance numbers.
Her 1979 film Vandichakkaram established her as one of the most popular actresses of the 1980s. On the occasion of her birth anniversary, let’s look at some lesser-known facts about her life, as well as some films inspired by her life.
Silk Smitha was born in a Telugu family, to Ramallu and Sarasamma in Kovvali village in Andhra Pradesh. She left school at the age of 10 years due to financial problems. Her parents got her married at the age of 14. However, she walked out of a forced early marriage after being ill-treated by her husband and in-laws. Smitha started her career as a touch-up artist and then got side roles in movies.
She got her first role in the movie Inaye Thedi, directed by director Anthony Eastman. He also gave her the name Smitha, which was quickly adopted by industry colleagues.
She got her big break in the Tamil film industry after she met the late director Vinu Chakravarthy. He guided her, and his wife Karna Poo taught her English. Moreover, she set up dance, acting, and etiquette classes for her.
She acclaimed her first major role in the 1980 Tamil film “Vandichakkaram”. In the film, she portrayed the role of a bar girl whose name was Silk from which she acquired this name.
Smitha impressed critics and audiences with her acting prowess in the movie Alaigal Oivathillai (1981). In this movie, she played a wife who was hurt by her husband’s rape of their maid. Moreover, she passively allowed to enter her maid’s bathroom. She also stands “guard” during the shameful act, to prevent embarrassment to the family.
Silk Smitha Death
On the morning of 23 September 1996, she contacted her friend, dancer Anuradha, to discuss a matter that was disturbing her. Anuradha planned to visit after dropping her child off at school.
Arriving later that morning, Anuradha found Smitha dead by hanging. A few months after her death, it was declared in the postmortem report that Smitha committed suicide, with high amounts of alcohol in her body.
The reason behind her death is still a mystery.
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