Vinu Chakravarthy / 'Silk' Smitha.

(28 April 2017)

Chennai.

Veteran actor Vinu Chakravarthy died on Thursday night. He was 72. He was not keeping well for the past couple of years. A native of Melappudhur village near Usilammpatti in Madurai district, 

Chakravarthy, with his rustic look and rasping voice, was at home playing assortment of roles, even as one thought he would have been more suitable for theatre.  Before his entry into films, he was in real life, a sub-inspector of police and, a station master with the southern railway for four years.

One understands that it was Vinu Chakravarthy who chanced upon Vijayalakshmi Vadiapati, who later became popular as Silk Smitha.  

He spotted her at a flour mill when producer Thiruppur Mani was looking for a new face for his film. Impressed by her eyes and looks he called her. When asked what she was doing the girl from Andhra replied she was working as a domestic help in a house nearby. Vijayalakshmi revealed her interest in acting. She told Chakravarthy that she know dancing.
Thus she was roped in for 'Vandichakkaram' (1980) for which Vinu Chakravarthy himself was the script writer. 

Subsequently, he took her under his wings. She became Silk Smitha. Chakravarthy's wife reportedly taught the young girl English language and arranged for her to learn dancing.

A section of the media called him Smitha's 'boyfriend.' (Was he?) I think the English language media was against him when he opposed  Ekta Kapoor for her depiction of Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture in 2011.

But in a television interview when asked about his relationship with the late actress, he quipped: 

"I'm like a father to her, and she like a daughter to me.If there is another life I wish she will be my daughter." 

ENDS.