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Anjali Ewing
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Gulshan Ewing’s daughter says Gregory Peck was her favourite Hollywood actor
A pioneering Indian journalist who mingled with some of the world’s most famous celebrities has died with Covid-19 at a home for the elderly in London.
Gulshan Ewing was 92 when she died in residential care in Richmond, her daughter Anjali Ewing told the BBC.
“I was right by her side when she stopped breathing.” Despite her age, her mother had no pre-existing conditions, she says.
Ewing, who edited two of India’s most popular publications – women’s magazine Eve’s Weekly and film magazine Star & Style – from 1966 to 1989 was a celebrated editor, and a celebrity in her own right.
In his book India: A million mutinies now, Nobel laureate VS Naipaul describes her as “India’s most famous female editor”.
She also holds the record for the longest-ever interview that Indira Gandhi, India’s first and only female prime minister, gave to any journalist.
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Anjali Ewing
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Gulshan Ewing interviewed prime minister Indira Gandhi for her magazine
As the editor of Eve’s Weekly, she mentored young female journalists and, as the feminist movement began to grow in India in the 1970s and 80s, led the magazine through changing times.
As the editor of Star and Style, she rubbed shoulders with the best of Hollywood and Bollywood, interviewing some of the biggest stars, writing about them and even partying with them.
In the past week, news websites have published her photographs interviewing Hollywood legends Gregory Peck, Cary Grant and Roger Moore; she’s seen dining with Alfred Hitchcock, chatting with Prince Charles, posing for photographs with Ava Gardner and teaching Danny Kay how to drape a sari.
In Bollywood, says her daughter, her friendships ran deep – she dropped in on the sets of superstar Rajesh Khanna, partied with legends like Dilip Kumar, Shammi Kapoor, Dev Anand, Sunil Dutt and Nargis, and even danced with “biggest showman” Raj Kapoor.
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Anjali Ewing
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She used to love mimicking Cary Grant’s accent and would speak a few sentences in his style
Born to Parsi parents in Mumbai (then Bombay) in 1928, Ewing was among the first of a few women to join journalism in independent India. She worked for a number of publications before she was appointed editor of the two magazines. In 1990, she moved to London with her husband Guy Ewing, a British journalist she married in 1955.
Her death comes amid growing concerns over how Britain is handling Covid-19 infections in care homes. The virus has killed thousands of elderly and vulnerable people.
Ewing had been ill for a week and died peacefully on 18 April. Her test result, confirming the coronavirus infection, came a day later.
“I spent several hours sitting with her. I held her hand, I chatted, I spoke about the family, I told her how much I loved her,” Anjali says.
“She was semi-conscious, she didn’t speak. I played her favourite music, a couple of old Bollywood songs and Blue Danube.”
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Anjali Ewing
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Ewing, seen here with Rajesh Khanna and Shammi Kapoor, was close friends with many stars
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Anjali Ewing
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She met Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan many times
As news of her death came in, some of India’s best-known female journalists who had worked with her 35 or 40 years ago, began fondly remembering an editor who gave them their first break, held their hands in their first jobs, was always kind and never condescending.
“She was my editor on my very first job,