The first look of the much-awaited biopic, Shakeela, was released recently, to wide acclaim. The lead actress of the film, Richa Chadda, looked every bit stunning in the first look, in which she dons only gold ornaments in South Indian style. She stands against a wall inscribed with various comments and abuses Shakeela had to face, despite her successful films.
Now, the makers of the film have revealed an interesting fact regarding the image– that it was actually inspired from a classic photograph of not Shakeela, but Silk Smitha. The poster of Shakeela is inspired from a Silk Smitha film, titled Miss Pamela, the poster of which showed Smitha posing in only gold jewellery. And there is a special reason behind its selection. They wanted to pay homage to Smitha, who met with an untimely and tragic end but led to the rise of Shakeela.
Had it not been for Smitha who paved the way with her unapologetic choices, Shakeela wouldn’t have been so popular. Post Smitha’s demise, Shakeela rose to extreme stardom with massive fan following. She was the only actress of her time whose films were dubbed in not just South Indian languages, but 16 languages including Nepali, Chinese, Sinhalese and Russian.
Speaking about the tribute, Richa said, “Silk Smitha was an iconic name in the 90s. Her popularity knew no bounds. She created a genre in cinema which didn’t exist until then and empowered many women with her unapologetic choices. Her films made a lot of money at the box office. Unfortunately, she had a tragic, untimely death and her demise resulted in Shakeela’s popularity. When we, as a team, brainstormed on the references for the shoot, we came across the iconic poster of Silk Smitha’s film, and we wanted to pay homage to her. Because hadn’t it been for Silk Smitha, Shakeela wouldn’t have had such phenomenal popularity.”
