MUMBAI: Vijayalakshmi, also known as Silk Smitha, was a well-known actress in the Tamil and Telugu film industries when she was young and was born on December 2, 1960. Hindi, Kannada, and Malayalam films also featured Silk Smitha. 

Beginning her acting career as a supporting role model, Silk Smitha initially came to public attention in 1979 for her outstanding performance in the Tamil film Vandichakkaram. Before her sad death at the age of 35 on September 23, 1996, Silk Smitha worked for 17 years and made appearances in over 450 films.

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Silk Smitha's family's financial situation was poor, which is why Silk was forced to discontinue his studies as a young boy. In accordance with sources, Silk Smitha was married at the age of 14 and experienced significant domestic violence. Silk Smitha was compelled to leave her home and flee after suffering torture from her husband and in-laws. Silk Smitha went to her makeup artist friend's place after leaving her husband's residence.

Silk Smitha started visiting movie sets with a friend, where she studied makeup. She began working as a cosmetics artist a few months later. Her life was permanently changed when she got the opportunity to work in films thanks to film director Anthony Eastman. 

Later on, Silk Smitha received a significant break from Tamil director Vinu Chakravarthy, who also set up for her to take acting, dancing, and English lessons. As her career took off, Silk Smitha began to appear in numerous high-profile films. Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi are just a few of the languages in which Silk appeared in films. Mohanlal and Kamal Haasan were only two of the prominent stars she collaborated with.

Even though Silk Smitha was becoming famous, her personal life was unhappy. She allegedly married a doctor who put all of her salary towards making films. Silk Smitha suffered a sad turn of events when the films of her husband invested the money and had  a disastrous box office performance, costing her all of her hard-earned money. On September 23, 1996, Silk Smitha committed suicide. According to reports, Silk left a suicide note, in which she claimed she was departing the world because she was unhappy with her life.

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Credit - DNA