Gulshan Ewing, a pioneering Indian journalist who mingled with some of the world’s most famous celebrities, died on April 18, 2020, after suffering from Covid-19 at a home for the elderly in London.
Gulshan Ewing was 92 when she died in residential care in Richmond, BBC quoted her daughter Anjali Ewing as saying.
“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.
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.
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. The couple have two children – daughter Anjali and son Roy.
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.