The actress's death remains a mystery even today.
Vijayalakshmi, widely known as Silk Smitha, was born on December 2, 1960. She gained fame as an actress in the Tamil and Telugu film industries and also appeared in several Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films.
Silk Smitha started her career as a supporting actress and became well-known in 1979 for her great performance in the Tamil film Vandichakkaram. Over her 17-year career, she appeared in more than 450 films before she sadly passed away at the age of 35 on September 23, 1996.
Let's take a look at her life story:
Her family struggled financially, which forced her to leave school as a child. Reports say she married at just 14 and experienced a lot of domestic violence. The abuse from her husband and in-laws made her leave home. After escaping, she went to stay with a friend who was a makeup artist.
Silk Smitha began visiting film sets with her friend and learned makeup skills. After a few months, she started working as a makeup artist. Film director Anthony Eastman gave her her first break in movies, which changed her life. Later, Tamil director Vinu Chakravarthy helped her get a major role and arranged for her to learn acting, dance, and English. This helped her career take off, and she appeared in many popular films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi. She worked with several big stars, including Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan.
Despite her rising fame, Silk Smitha was struggling in her personal life. She married a doctor who invested all her earnings into film production. Unfortunately, his ventures failed, and she lost all her hard-earned money when those films flopped at the box office. Tragically, Silk Smitha died by suicide on September 23, 1996.
On the night of September 22, 1996, after completing a shoot for a Kannada movie, Smitha reached out to her friend, actress Anuradha, to talk about a serious matter that was troubling her. 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. A few months after her death it was reported that the actress may have died due to excess alcohol found in her body, but her death remains a mystery.
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 "Image credit: Instagram")
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