All Time Greats
Ismail Merchant: From Bombay to Hollywood and beyond
Ismail Merchant (December 25, 1936-May 25, 2005) was an Indian-born film producer best known for his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions (MIP) and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. On his partnership with the duo, Merchant once commented, "It is a strange marriage we have at Merchant Ivory...I am an Indian Muslim, Ruth is a German Jew and Jim is a Protestant American. Someone once described us a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!"Until Merchant's death in 2005, MIP produced a number of award winning films. Merchant and Ivory made over close to 40 films together. In fact, their partnership even made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema history. MIP's first production, The Householder, premiered in 1963. Based on a novel by Jhabvala (she also wrote the script), the film became the first Indian-made film to be distributed internationally by a major American studio, Columbia Pictures. In addition to producing films such as The White Countess (2005), Heights (2004), Cotton Mary (2000) Merchant directed a number of films such as The Mystic Masseur (2002), Cotton Mary, Lumiere and Company (1995, jointly directed by Ivory), along with two television features. For television, he directed Mahatma and the Mad Boy (1974) and a full-length TV feature, The Courtesans of Bombay made for Britain's Channel Four. Merchant made his own directorial debut with 1993's In Custody, based on a novel by the well-known Anita Desai. The film, which starred Bollywood actor Shashi Kapoor, was filmed in Bhopal, India and went on to win national awards from the Government of India for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Costume and Best Production Design. His second directorial venture, The Proprietor, filmed in Paris, starred Jeanne Moreau, Sean Young, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Christopher Cazenove. In 1998 he was a jury member at the Venice Film Festival. In 2002, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. The food connoisseur Merchant also wrote several recipe books such as Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine; Ismail Merchant's Florence and Ismail Merchant's Paris: Filming and Feasting in France. He also wrote books on filmmaking, the latest being My Passage from India: A Filmmaker's Journey from Bombay to Hollywood and Beyond. Merchant died in London at the age of 69, following surgery for abdominal ulcers. He was buried in the Bada Kabrestan in Marine Lines, Mumbai in keeping with his wish to be laid to rest with his ancestors. Compiled by Cultural Correspondent
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