Ismail Merchant (born Ismail Noor Muhammad Abdul Rahman (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005)) was an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

film producer, director and screenwriter. He worked for many years in collaboration with

Merchant Ivory Productions Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant (1936–2005) and director James Ivory (b. 1928). Merchant and Ivory were life and business partners from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. During their ...

which included Director (and Merchant's longtime professional and domestic partner)

James Ivory James Francis Ivory (born June 7, 1928) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. For many years, he worked extensively with Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, his domestic as well as professional partner, and with scree ...

as well as screenwriter

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (; 7 May 19273 April 2013) was a British author and screenwriter. She is best known for her collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, made up of director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. In 1951, Jhabvala ma ...

Early life and education

Born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

(

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

), Merchant was son of Hazra ( née Memon) and Noor Mohamed Rehman, a Bombay textile dealer. He grew up bilingual in

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and English at school. When he was 11, he and his family were caught up in the 1947 partition of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. His father was the President of the Muslim League and refused to move to

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. Merchant later said that he carried memories of "butchery and riots" into adulthood.cited in ''Cheek of the devil'' As a child at the age of 9, Merchant delivered a speech about

partition Partition may refer to: Computing Hardware * Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive * Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job Software * Partition (database), the division of a ...

at a political rally in front of a crowd of 10,000. At age 13, he developed a close friendship with actress

Nimmi Nawab Bano (18 February 1933 – 25 March 2020), better known by her stage name Nimmi, was an Indian screen actress who achieved stardom in the 1950s and early 1960s in Hindi films. She was one of the leading actresses of the "golden era" of Hin ...

, who introduced him to studios in Bombay (the center of Hindi film industry). It was she who inspired his ambitious rise to stardom. Merchant studied at

St. Xavier's College, Mumbai St. Xavier's College is a private, Catholic, autonomous higher education institution run by the Bombay Province of the Society of Jesus in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by the Jesuits on January 2, 1869. The college is aff ...

and received BA degree of University of Bombay. It was here he developed a love for movies. When he was 22, he moved to USA to study at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

where he received an MBA degree. While in New York, he gave up his family name of Abdul Rehman for Merchant. He supported himself by working as a messenger for the UN in New York and used this opportunity to persuade Indian delegates to fund his film projects. Of this experience, he said, "I was not intimidated by anyone or anything." Immersed in a new world of art and culture, it was here that Merchant discovered the films of Bengali director Satyajit Ray, as well as those of European artists such as Ingmar Bergman,

Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica ( , ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: ''Sciuscià'' and ''Bicycle Thieves'' (honorary) ...

, and Federico Fellini. In 1961, Merchant made a short film, ''The Creation of Woman''. It was shown at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

and received an Academy Award nomination.

Merchant Ivory Productions

Merchant met American movie director

at a screening in New York of Ivory's documentary ''The Sword and the Flute'' in 1959. In May 1961, Merchant and Ivory formed the film production company

. Merchant and Ivory were long-term life partners. Their professional and romantic partnership lasted 44 years, from 1961 until Merchant's death in 2005. The Guinness Book of World Records says theirs was the longest partnership in independent cinema history. Until Merchant's death in 2005, they produced nearly 40 films, including a number of award winners. Novelist

was the screenwriter for most of their productions. In 1963, MIP premiered its first production, ''

The Householder ''The Householder'' (Hindi title: ''Gharbar'') is a 1963 film by Merchant Ivory Productions, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory, and direction of James Ivory. It is based upon the 1960 novel of the same name by Jhabvala. ...

'', based upon a novel by Jhabvala (who also wrote the screenplay). This feature became the first Indian-made film to be distributed internationally by a major American studio,

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. However, it wasn't until the 1970s that partnership "hit on a successful formula for studied, slow-moving pieces ... Merchant Ivory became known for their attention to tiny period detail and opulence of their sets". Their first success in this style was Jhabvala's adaptation of

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

's ''

The Europeans ''The Europeans: A sketch'' is a short novel by Henry James, published in 1878. It is essentially a comedy contrasting the behaviour and attitudes of two visitors from Europe with those of their relatives living in the "new" world of New England ...

''. In addition to producing, Merchant directed a number of films and two TV features. For TV, he directed a short feature entitled ''Mahatma and the Mad Boy'', and a full-length feature, ''The Courtesans of Bombay'', made for Britain's

Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service in ...

. Merchant made his film directorial debut with 1993's ''In Custody'' based on a novel by

Anita Desai Anita Desai, born Anita Mazumdar (born 24 June 1937) is an Indian novelist and the Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As a writer she has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three ti ...

, and starring

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

actor Shashi Kapoor. Filmed in

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

, India, it won National Awards from the Government of India for Best Production Design and Special Jury award for lead actor Shashi Kapoor. His second directing feature, ''The Proprietor'', starred Jeanne Moreau,

Sean Young Mary Sean Young (born November 20, 1959) is an American actress. She is particularly known for working in sci-fi films, although she has performed roles in a variety of genres. Young's early roles include the independent romance '' Jane Aust ...

Jean-Pierre Aumont Jean-Pierre Aumont (born Jean-Pierre Philippe Salomons; 5 January 1911 – 30 January 2001) was a French actor, and holder of the Légion d'Honneur and the Croix de Guerre for his World War II military service. Early life Aumont was born Jea ...

and Christopher Cazenove and was filmed on location in Paris, France. Of his partnership with Ivory and Jhabvala, 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 as a three-headed god. Maybe they should have called us a three-headed monster!"

Cooking and writing

Merchant was fond of cooking, and he wrote several books including ''Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine'', ''Ismail Merchant's Florence'', ''Ismail Merchant's Passionate Meals'', and ''Ismail Merchant's Paris: Filming and Feasting in France''. He also wrote books on filmmaking, including a book about the making of the film ''The Deceivers'' in 1988 titled ''Hullabaloo in Old Jeypur'', and another about the making of ''The Proprietor'' called ''Once Upon a Time ... The Proprietor''. His last book was entitled ''My Passage from India: A Filmmaker's Journey from Bombay to Hollywood and Beyond''.

Filmography

Director

Producer

Actor

Awards and nominations

In 2002 he was awarded the

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

, the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India. He was also a recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

British Academy Film Awards Golden Globe Awards

Producers Guild of America Award The Producers Guild of America Awards were originally established in 1990 by the Producers Guild of America as the Golden Laurel Awards, created by PGA Treasurer Joel Freeman with the support of Guild President Leonard Stern, in order to honor ...

Death

Merchant died in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...

, England aged 68, following surgery for

abdominal The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso ...

ulcer An ulcer is a discontinuity or break in a bodily membrane that impedes normal function of the affected organ. According to Robbins's pathology, "ulcer is the breach of the continuity of skin, epithelium or mucous membrane caused by sloughing o ...

s. He was buried in

Bada Qabrastan Mumbai Bada Kabarastan, also written as "Bara Qabristan" (), is a Muslim cemetery in the Marine Lines area of south Mumbai in India. One of the largest Muslim cemeteries in the country, it is also the final resting place of a number of icons from the I ...

Marine Lines Marine Lines is a locality in South Mumbai. The name ''Marine Lines'' is derived from the Marine Battalion Lines, a military establishment built by the British in the 19th century. The battalion was later converted to an air force residential ...

, India on 28 May 2005, in keeping with his wish to be buried with his ancestors.

References

External links

* *
Biography from Merchant-Ivory Productions

* ttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050526/PEOPLE/50526001 Ismail Merchant: In Memory {{DEFAULTSORT:Merchant, Ismail 1936 births 2005 deaths St. Xavier's College, Mumbai alumni Deaths from ulcers Film producers from Mumbai British film directors British film producers Indian food writers British food writers Indian Ismailis British Ismailis British people of Gujarati descent New York University Stern School of Business alumni Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in arts Filmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award Indian emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom LGBT film directors LGBT writers from India LGBT rights activists from India LGBT Muslims Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 20th-century LGBT people Khoja Ismailism