The Dirty Picture (2011) on Netflix
NR20112h 24mBiographyComedyDrama
Reshma leaves her Tamil Nadu village for Madras to become an actress and meet her idol, Suryakanth. Turned away at auditions, she is given a dance number and the screen name Silk.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb6.5/1011,405 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the early 1980s, Reshma runs away from her village in Tamil Nadu on the eve of an arranged marriage and reaches Madras with one ambition: to act in films like her childhood favorite, the star Suryakanth. She lives in a poor neighborhood and takes a job at Ratnamma's eatery. Audition follows audition and casting directors turn her away; one insults her looks and then hands her money when he sees she is hungry. She finally auditions as a background dancer, and her sensual movements catch an assistant director's eye. The film's director, Abraham, dislikes the footage and removes her sequence. Producer Selva Ganeshan later restores the dance for a re-release, and when it draws crowds he offers her a number in his next film and the screen name Silk.
Cast
- Lavin Gothias Fan
- Devyanias Girl in maroon dress
- Mangala Kenkreas Ratnamma
- A.R. Manikandanas Photographer
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Dirty Picture (2011)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Kangana Ranaut and Bipasha Basu were in initial talks for the lead role before Vidya Balan was offered it, and Balan felt uncomfortable when shown sketches of the outfits she would have to wear.
- The Dirty Picture was initially banned by the Pakistan Central Board of Film Censors over obscenity concerns, but was cleared for release just a week after its Indian premiere.
- To screen on Indian television the film was cleared only after 56 cuts, 36 of them made by the producers and the rest suggested by the censor board, with the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench allowing the telecast.
- By the end of its first week, The Dirty Picture had become the biggest opening ever for a women-oriented film in the history of Indian cinema.
- The film is not officially or literally based on Silk Smitha alone but on contemporaries such as Disco Shanti, and it also echoes the life of Marilyn Monroe.
- The song "Ooh La La", sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Bappi Lahiri, later appeared in the American sitcom New Girl and in regional films including Race Gurram.
- Director Milan Luthria kept Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi apart during pre-shoot workshops to create discomfort, then had them meet on camera for a scene in which they insult each other.
- Naseeruddin Shah, cast as an ageing South Indian superstar, performed a fast dance number in the film a full 22 years after he last did one, in "Tirchi Topiwale" from Tridev (1989).
