Ismail Merchant’s legacy
The Hindu
Remembering the Indian-born producer behind films like A Room With a View and Howards End
Come May 25, it will be 16 long years since producer extraordinaire Ismail Merchant left us. The Indian-born producer was responsible for 44 films including Shakespeare-Wallah (1965), Heat and Dust (1983), A Room With a View (1985), Howards End (1992), and Remains of the Day (1993), along with his longtime collaborators, director James Ivory and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. I met Merchant only once, at the lobby of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai, shortly before his death. A dear friend of mine had made his début feature and Merchant was one of the executive producers of the film. I was introduced to the great man, but was dismissed with a polite nod. His focus was on getting my friend to change the minimalist score of his film by firing his composer and hiring Zakir Hussain instead. If Merchant was an irresistible force, my friend was an immovable object and the meeting ended in a stalemate. Merchant flounced off, and lo and behold, there was a $20 note on the chair where he was sitting.More Related News