 Ismail Merchant was born in India in 1936 and educated in Bombay and the US. His first film, the short The Creation of Woman, was nominated for an Academy Award in 1961. He met James Ivory that year at the Cannes Film Festival and they agreed to form a partnership, Merchant Ivory Productions, to make English language films in India for the international market.
With Merchant as producer and Ivory as director, their first was The Householder (1963), the first film made in India to be distributed worldwide. Other MIP films include Shakespeare Wallah (1965), Quartet (1981), Heat and Dust (1982), A Room With a View (1985), Maurice (1987), Howards End (1992) and The Remains of the Day (1993). Since 1993 he has also directed films including In Custody (1993), The Proprietor (1996) and Cotton Mary (1999).
A gourmet cook, he opened a restaurant in 1993 and has written several books including cookbooks Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine, Ismail Merchant's Passionate Meals and Ismail Merchant's Florence.
Marianne Gray
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FILM & TV CREDITS
