Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, Dinuba, California, 1964 January 2 : autograph manuscript signed.

Explaining her misgivings about aspects of the plot for the actors film ["Shakespeare Wallah"] using Saeed and Madhur Jaffrey as examples to prove her point, backed up by the agreement of Jhab and Ismail; enclosing some possible scenes [not present]; expressing reluctance to take the writing any further until Ivory is in India and they can work on it together; wanting the Kendals to play themselves; laying out what she has gained from reading scripts by Ingmar Bergman and Michaelangelo Antonioni, and quoting large passages from Bergman; saying that they recently saw Ivory's short documentary "The Sword and the Flute" and both she and Jhab "liked it immensely"; recounting she, Jhab, and Ismail's New Year's activities over the last few days-- sleeping through New Year's Eve, then going round the next morning "making our apologies to the people we said we'd spend New Year's Eve with"-- tea with Gardner Stanbridge at the English High Commission flats, then visiting Romesh Thapar, and entertaining Mr. Dutt of the Finance Ministry in the evening; saying Merchant will be returning to Bombay tomorrow, and the "Householder" distribution deal is now in Columbia's hands.