Meet actress who married at 14, faced domestic violence, worked in 450 films, known for bold movies, died at 35 due to…

Born on December 2, 1960, Vijayalakshmi who is popularly known as Silk Smitha, was an actress who was once a big name in Tamil and Telugu film industry. Silk Smitha worked in some Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films too. Silk Smitha started her career as a supporting actress, and first grabbed limelight in 1979 for her stellar performance in Tamil film Vandichakkaram. Silk Smitha worked for 17 years and appeared in over 450 films before she died a tragic death at the age of 35 on September 23, 1996.

The financial condition of Silk Smitha's family was not good and that’s why Silk had to leave her studies in his childhood. According to reports, Silk Smitha was married when she was just 14 and she faced a lot of domestic violence. The pain which were inflicted on Silk Smitha by her husband and in-laws forced her to leave the house and run away. After running away from her husband’s home, Silk Smitha went to her friend’ house who was a make-up artist.

Silk Smitha started going to film sets with her friend and learned the art of make-up. After few months, she started working as a makeup artist. Film director Anthony Eastman gave her the break to work in film and this changed her life forever. Later, Tamil director Vinu Chakravarthy gave Silk Smitha a major break and also made arrangements for her to learn acting, dance and English. Silk Smitha’s career started blossoming and she started appearing in many big films. Silk worked in films of all languages, including ​​Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi. She worked with several big stars like Mohanlal and  Kamal Haasan.

Though Silk Smitha was earning fame she was not happy in her personal life. It is said that she married a doctor and he invested all her earnings in film production. In a cruel twist of fate, Silk Smitha lost all her hard-earned money as the films in which her husband had invested the money tanked at the box-office. Silk Smitha died by suicide September 23, 1996. It is said that the police had found a suicide note, in which Silk had written that she was not happy with life and hence was leaving the world.