Letter from Ismail Merchant, Mumbai, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, [1964] February 17 : typescript signed.

Commiserating with Ivory over the account in his letter of visiting "these bastards [sic] offices" at Columbia in New York; questioning him on some points regarding Columbia and the MPEAA; reminding him that the people at Kine are willing to take over the distribution of "The Householder" in India at any time; saying he is unable to answer Ivory's query about Shashi; telling Ivory that Shashi's brother "Shammi Kapoor has opened a distribution office in Delhi and has also bought a theatre" and at some point they may work with him; lamenting all the time wasted on Columbia; saying "This morning I went and told Blamey in polite words that Columbia and they all were Bastards and I will see to this that the Government stops their license for good to teach them a lesson"; say Jhab has sent him a letter from Dutt at the Ministry of Finance, which he is sending separately to Ivory, along with a letter from the Reserve Bank and his article in "Screen" [see MA 23840.107]; repeating his threats and disgust with Columbia; relating news from his breakfast with Satyajit Ray, who has agreed to distribute "The Householder" in Calcutta through the Calcutta Film Society, and describing their discussions of Bosley Crowther and Subrata Mitra; saying how happy he was to speak to Ivory on the telephone recently; repeating his requests for items to be sent by Ivory to India; saying they will have less money to make their next film and Madhur and Saeed will have to handle their own transportation; asking for the addresses of several people he wants to write to; giving Ivory a list of people he should invite to the screening of "The Delhi Way" in New York.