Mumbai, Nov 26 (IANS): A biopic on adult film actress Shakeela will pay homage to late actress Silk Smitha, whose roller-coaster life story was captured by Bollywood film "The Dirty Picture". Actress Richa Chadha says it was only fit for the film's team to pay a tribute to a woman who empowered many others with her bold choices.

The first look of "Shakeela" saw Richa flaunting only gold jewellery on her body, as she stands against a wall inscribed with various comments and abuses Shakeela was given despite her success.

The movie's makers have now said the image actually was inspired by a classic image of not Shakeela, but that of Silk Smitha's "Miss Pamela". The reason for the inspiration was that the makers of "Shakeela" wanted to pay homage to Silk Smitha, who had an untimely tragic demise, which led to the rise of Shakeela's popularity.

Richa, who plays Shakeela in the upcoming film, said in a statement: "Silk Smitha was an iconic name in the 90s whose popularity knew no bounds. She created a genre in cinema which didn't exist 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 led to the rise of Shakeela's popularity. Thus when we as a team brainstormed on the references for the shoot, we came across the iconic poster of Silk's film and we wanted to do a homage to her. Because hadn't it been for Silk, Shakeela wouldn't have had such phenomenal popularity."

"Shakeela" is directed by Indrajit Lankesh.