Dec.2 was the birthday of ‘Silk’ Smitha, who ruled the hearts of Tamil youths and fans for more than one-and-a-half decades.
After debuting in Vandichakkaram in the late seventies, the girl from Andhra Pradesh never looked back and became an integral part of Tamil films till she stunned her fans by committing suicide in the year 1996.

Silk, as she was fondly referred, had a raw sex appeal which transcended age and linguistic barriers. Her glamour never looked obscene and endeared her to all sections of the audience. From the seventies to the mid-nineties, Silk starred in as many as 450 films in Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. Everything occurred so fast and ironically, her end was also sudden and unexpected.

Besides the ‘glamour girl’ tag, Silk displayed her acting credentials in films like Alaigal Oyvathillai and Kozhi Koovudhu. She starred opposite all the leading stars of her time including Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijaykanth, Sathyaraj an others. There was a time in Kollywood, during the eighties, when her dance number became an inseparable part of the films which released during this period.

Many producers, directors and even heroes used to wait for her call-sheet dates to schedule their film’s shoot accordingly. A half-eaten apple by Silk, when put to auction, was sold for a whopping price during this period! Her dreamy and sexy eyes, coupled with a perfectly toned body and scintillating dance movements, made her more popular than many of the contemporary heroines.