Ramesh Sharma directed
New Delhi Times, one of Hindi cinema's first political thrillers. The film depicted the nexus between politics and the business of media like none before. The film was made at a time when the country was being ravaged by communal riots and the media was finding a new dimension post the Emergency of 1975. Journalists fighting for freedom of the press had stalwart editors like Arun Shourie, N. Ram, Prem Shankar Jha among others to look up to for inspiration.
The film marked the coming together of great talents like writer
Gulzar, actors
Shashi Kapoor and
Sharmila Tagore, cinematographer
Subrata Mitra, editor
Renu Saluja, sound designer
Dev Benegal and art director Nitin Bose.
Despite its bold and controversial content it won various awards like:
National Film Award
1986: Best Actor: Shashi Kapoor
1986: Best Cinematography: Subrata Mitra
1986: Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director: Romesh Sharma
1986: Best Actor Award (Hindi): Shashi Kapoor
1988: Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award
Cinemaazi revisits the film and tries to look at how far Indian society, politics and media have come in the last three decades.