Amita Malik

She began her career at All India Radio, Lucknow in 1944 and later worked as a columnist for many Indian newspapers including The Statesman, The Times of India, the Indian Express and Pioneer.

In 1944, she applied for the advertised post of programme assistant and was posted to All India Radio's Delhi station.

She was the only Indian film critic to interview many important film celebrities and directors such as Ingmar Bergman and Marlon Brando.

Amita Malik was the first reporter to interview Indira Gandhi when she unexpectedly became Prime Minister of India after Lal Bahadur Shastri's death in Tashkent.

She was awarded the first fellowship of the Canadian Women's Press Club which arranged accommodation for her with their members for 10 months in 1960.

Among others, she interviewed Satyajit Ray, Elia Kazan, Akira Kurosawa, Marlon Brando, David Niven, and Alfred Hitchcock.

In 1960 Malik launched a campaign against foreigners in saris.

Amita Malik was responsible for getting the censorship curbs on foreign media during the Indian Emergency lifted.

In 1989 she launched a campaign against the misuse of India's state owned media which had been converted into the private organ of the Indian National Congress party to promote Rajiv Gandhi.

Khushwant Singh said that Malik had once written he was the worst dressed man she had ever known.

He confessed it was the only time he genuinely agreed with her.

Amita's syndicated column "Sight and Sound" has been published in virtually every leading Indian newspaper at various times.

Her column was read by generations of television news readers for Amita's biting sartorial observations on them.

At the same time she strongly defended AIR and Doordarshan's underpaid staff who worked under political and bureaucratic pressure.

Amita Malik (1921 – 20 February 2009) was an Indian media critic.

She was described by Time magazine as India's "most prominent film and television critic", dubbed the "first lady of Indian media" and "India's best known cinema commentator ".

She died of leukemia at the age of 87 in Kailas Hospital on 20 February 2009.

Amita Malik was born into a Bengali family in Guwahati, Assam.

When she was 21 days old, a car she was travelling in collided with another car in which Mahatma Gandhi was sitting.

The very first film she saw in her life was The Gold Rush by Charlie Chaplin screened by the nuns of Loreto Convent Shillong.

She joined All India Radio at Lucknow at a salary of 100 rupees per month.

She presented the weekly lunch hour programme of European music on Saturdays.