The Dirty Picture is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language biographical 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.

Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati, better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked mainly in Tamil and Telugu cinema, in addition to some Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. She became one of India's most popular sex symbols of the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as one of the most sought-after erotic actresses in South Indian cinema in the 1980s. Smitha was a key figure in the Malayalam softcore film genre in the late 1980s.