The Dirty Picture

The Dirty Picture is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language musical drama film inspired by the life of Silk Smitha, an Indian actress noted for her erotic roles. The filmmakers have clarified that the story is not officially or literally based on Smitha alone, but on many of her contemporaries such as Disco Shanti. It also resembles the personal lives of other women in popular culture, including actress and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe. The film was directed by Milan Luthria and co-produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ekta Kapoor, after Ekta came up with the idea and asked screenwriter Rajat Aroraa to pen a story based on it.
Produced on a budget of, The Dirty Picture was released worldwide on 2 December 2011, in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil versions. Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Tusshar Kapoor star in lead roles. Upon release, it was a critical and commercial success, with Balan's performance receiving widespread critical acclaim and numerous accolades; she was called "the hero of the film". In addition, the film has received high praise for portraying women as powerful, contributing something unique to a typically male-dominated society. The film's soundtrack, composed by Vishal–Shekhar with lyrics written by Rajat Aroraa, also became a commercial success with the song "Ooh La La" become one of the chartbusters of the year.
The Dirty Picture grossed at the box office, with Box Office India declaring it a "hit" after its fourth week. Balan won the National Film Award for Best Actress at the 59th National Film Awards for her performance in the film. At the 57th Filmfare Awards, The Dirty Picture received 6 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor, and won 3 awards, including Best Actress. Additionally, at the 17th Screen Awards, it received 10 nominations and won 6 awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress.

Plot

In the early 1980s, a day before her marriage, Reshma, a young girl runs away from her rude mother and village in rural Tamil Nadu and reaches Madras, hoping to become a star in Tamil cinema. She starts staying at a house located in a poor area near a single woman named Ratnamma who operates an eatery where Reshma works. Since Reshma had been raised up as a tomboy, many people seek her for her charm. Though she goes on auditioning for roles, she fails to land an opportunity. A casting director insults her for being unattractive, and gives her money for food seeing her starving condition. That night, she is invited by her neighbour to go to a movie theatre with him to watch her childhood idol Suryakanth in action. There, the man inappropriately touches her & offers 20 rupees to sleep with him. Though she storms out of the theatre in tears, she later ponders over it and determined to secure a role, visits the sets again. She spontaneously auditions for the position of a background dancer. However, she dances in a sultry manner, using erotic movements which the assistant director found attractive. But when the film's director, Abraham comes back to the set that day and sees the dance footage, he is extremely disgusted seeing her erotic dance. He edits out Reshma's entire dance sequence. Reshma and Ratnamma eagerly go to watch the movie but are crestfallen to see that her dance has not been featured in the film. The film fails at the box office in spite of being highly praised by critics, much to the dismay of the producer Selva Ganeshan, who later recalls Reshma's performance footage and includes that song in the re-release at B and C centres. The film goes on to attract large crowds due to Reshma's dance moves, despite being heavily criticised by reviewers. Just as Reshma, disheartened that her song was edited out, decides to pack up and go back to her village, producer Selva Ganeshan finds her dwelling place and offers her a role in a song in his upcoming film. Selva also suggests that she now be referred to as "Silk", which sounds more exotic and captivating.
At the first shoot, Silk dances with the actor Suryakanth, her childhood idol. Enamored with him, Silk gains his affection and attention by offering a long-term extra-marital sexual relationship. Meanwhile, Abraham proposes a new film to Selva Ganeshan and is keen to cast Suryakanth. However, Suryakanth's suggestion of adding sex and eroticism alongside a dance featuring Silk, to make the film more commercially viable, angers Abraham, causing him to part ways with Silk. Silk slowly builds a name for herself in the industry with her erotic dance moves and goes on to do many more sexually charged films with Suryakanth, which catapults her into stardom. She gains many male fans who buy movie tickets only to enjoy her dances and, in a short time, becomes immensely rich and popular as a sex symbol.
Suryakanth's younger brother Ramakanth, a scriptwriter by profession, is a secret fanboy of Silk and starts to befriend her. Silk secretly moves away from Suryakanth & develops a liking for Ramakanth after she realizes that he is the first man who loves her for more than just her body and sex appeal & that Suryakanth will never abandon his wife to marry her. Silk visits her hometown with Ramakanth and is happy to see the crowd gathering around to see her, but is left heartbroken when her mother slams the door in her face without greeting her. At an awards ceremony Silk is insulted by Suryakanth who whispers to her that she is nothing more than everyone's "dirty secret". Hurt by his remarks, Silk delivers her award receiving speech in which she criticises the misogynistic double standards of the society which names & shames women acting in erotically charged films but not the men who produce, distribute, consume & spread those same material. She declares that she will continue to make her "dirty pictures" until the society changes its views. Silk's relationship with Ramakanth is released to the public after noted journalist Naila criticizes her for having a romantic relationship with both brothers. To seek revenge, Suryakanth drops Silk from his forthcoming films, forcing her to work with other filmmakers, who repeatedly typecast her as a seductress, which causes her to lose interest in her work & fall out with the directors. Now in the 90s, directors start to make the main actresses do the sultry dances instead of hiring dancers like Silk who specialised in such dance moves, causing shrinkage in her employability. By this time, Silk had also put on weight, losing her status as a sex symbol & begins to feel threatened by a younger aspiring actress, Shakeela. During a dance challenge in a party, she tries to outshine Shakeela by dancing more and more erotically and finally intentionally trips Shakeela, much to the embarrassment of Ramakanth who had been planning to introduce Silk to his parents as a prospective bride at that party. Silk & Ramakanth argue over this incident, during which she says that she isn't ashamed keeping her seductive image offscreen, which causes Ramakanth to break-up with her. To ease her heartbreak, Silk who had already been into drinking and smoking, turns to alcohol addiction and chain smoking & as a result begins to show symptoms of depression and obesity.
Silk now approaches Selva Ganeshan with an offer to produce a film together starring her in a triple role as a seductress. At the same time Abraham also directs a film starring himself in a triple role, containing commercial eroticism with Ramakanth as his scriptwriter. Both the films are released on the same day, & while Abraham's film becomes a commercial success, Silk's film drastically fails at the box office. He feels that he has finally proven to Silk that he has defeated Silk. But Abraham begins to take a liking towards Silk even though he claims to hate her.
Having lost her fame and fortune Silk had accumulated so much debt that she was on the verge of homelessness. Out of desperation, she approaches a small-time filmmaker, willing to take on any role. He intoxicates her with alcohol and starts filming her in a hardcore pornographic film without her permission. The place is raided by the police & Silk manages to escape. In her intoxicated state, she has several visions of her past, encounters Ratnamma's shop on the way and tries to hide from being seen by her out of shame, realising that she had come back to the same position as she was before her film career began. Completely heartbroken and inundated with substance abuse, she reaches her house and cries out bitterly.
Abraham finds himself falling in love with Silk, even though he denies it at first, as he struggles with this moral dilemma. After coming to know about Silk's loneliness & loveless personal life, he goes to Silk's hometown and convinces her mother to accompany him to visit her at Madras. He tries to call Silk over phone in an attempt to surprise her but she doesn't pick up. When he finally got Silk on phone, Abraham becomes alarmed when she asks him to bid farewell to everyone for her. He rushes to her house and finds her lying in bed, dressed modestly in a red sari like a housewife, dead from a sleeping pill overdose, along with a suicide note written by her.
A tearful Abraham and Silk's mother cremates Silk's body. The film ends with Abraham's narration, examining the life that Silk has led, and he questions whether it was her or her life that was right or wrong. He also thinks that Silk must be right now creating an uproar in the other world as well, because that is her nature.

Cast

Vidya Balan as Reshma / Silk, a rebellious and independent woman. She runs away from her rural home at a young age to nurture her dream of becoming an actress. She is uninhibited in expressing her sexuality.
Emraan Hashmi as Abraham, a director and the narrator of the film. He dreams of making critically acclaimed films. He initially hates Silk and her over-sexualization of the film industry.
Naseeruddin Shah as Suryakanth, a flamboyant South Indian superstar. He is involved in extramarital relationships and has a secret affair with the much younger Silk.
Tusshar Kapoor as Ramakanth, Suryakant's brother and a writer for one of his forthcoming films. Unlike his brother, he is attracted to Silk but is empathetic towards her.
Anju Mahendru as Naila, a journalist who writes sensationalist articles about Silk but secretively admires her courage.
Neha Bam as Silk's mother
Arya Banerjee as Shakeela, an up-and-coming young actress who compares herself to Silk
Rajesh Sharma as Selva Ganesh / Keedadas, the producer of most of Silk's films
Imran Hasnee as Vijayan, filmmaker
Mangal Kenkre as Ratnamma, a confidante of Silk.
Vikas Shrivastav as Sudhir, casting director
Mohit Sinha as a photographer from Manorama
Shivani Tanksale as Raadhika
Lavin Gothi as a Fanboy of Silk