Formerly known as Vijayalakshmi, the blatantly sensuous Smitha - who reigned over all the similarly exotically-named sex sirens of her time (Polyester Padmini, Nylon Nalini, Disco Shanti) - died all alone, under mysterious circumstances, in her house in Chennai. She was 36. The loyal audience lamented for a while, but with heroines shedding inhibitions and clothes, the vamp/sex bomb was soon forgotten.
Till Ekta Kapoor decided to produce The Dirty Picture, a biopic loosely based on her life. This Milan Luthria production releases, incidentally, on the birthday of the sex goddess....