Ismail N Merchant

Ismail Merchant 1936 - 2005 Ismail Merchant’s love of film developed during his college years in Bombay. At 22 he came to the U.S. for a business administration degree, but was sidetracked into the film world. In 1961 he made the short film ‘The Creation of Woman’ which was subsequently shown at Cannes and earned an Academy Award nomination. While at Cannes he met future business and life partner James Ivory. Aimed at making English language films in India for an international market, they began Merchant Ivory Productions – it remains the longest professional partnership in independent film history. Prior to Merchant’s death, the team produced nearly 40 films, many of which included the talents of screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. In 1963 MIP’s first production ‘The Householder,’ became the first Indian-made film given international distribution by a major American studio. Beginning in the late 1970s the group became well known for a series of period films based on classic literature – ‘The Europeans,’ ‘The Bostonians,’ ‘Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,’ ‘Remains of the Day,’ ‘Heat and Dust,’ and their Oscar Award-winning E.M. Forster adaptations A Room With a View (1985), Howard’s End (1992) and Maurice (1987). Merchant’s strength as producer lay in his creative funding and amazing ability to produce lavish looking films for millions less than his contemporaries. He also loved to entertain and even wrote four best-selling cookbooks as well as several books about filmmaking. In addition to film awards, Merchant received several honors in his lifetime including the Padma Bhusan, India’s equivalent of knighthood in 2002. He died in 2005 at the age of 68 following surgery for abdominal ulcers