This actress worked in over 450 films, still failed to become a lead heroine, suffered domestic violence, her name was…, married to…
Vijayalakshmi Vadlapatla, who rose to popularity with her stage name Silk Smitha, starred in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi movies. She began her career in supporting roles, but it was her powerful performance in 1979 Tamil film Vandichakkaram that brought her into limelight.
Reportedly, due to financial crisis, Silk had to leave her early education. She got married at the tender age of 14 and suffered domestic abuse from her husband. After some time, she walked away from her toxic marriage, leaving her husband’s home and then staying at her friend’s place who was a makeup artist.
Silk began working as a makeup artist, and started visiting film sets to work their professionally. She was then spotted by Filmmaker Anthony Eastman, who gave her first break, and changed her destiny forever. She started working in numerous regional films, and garnered popularity for her sensual on-screen roles.
Silk worked with superstars like Mohanlal, Kamal Hassan, and impressed critics and audience with her acting prowess. Though, Silk was rising to fame with her work, but she was suffering big time in her personal life. Reports claim that she married a doctor and invested all her earnings in film production. Unfortunately, she lost all her money on to the films in which his husband invested, as they were all major commercial flops.
On the morning of September 23, 1996, Silk Smitha was found dead in her home in Chennai. According to the postmortem report, she committed suicide with alcohol in her system. The real reason behind her death is still an unsolved mystery.
News