Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1964 February 4 : autograph manuscript signed.

Exclaiming that she is "appalled, really and truly appalled" that Ivory took her remarks about Madhur and Saeed in a previous letter (see MA 23840.141) to apply to them as people, and not the characters they would be playing, and subsequently providing a list of their friends and the names of the characters they will be playing in "Shakespeare Wallah" as a guide to prevent further misunderstandings; discussing the relationships of several characters and her feelings about how they should be handled and structured; expressing concern that Madhur is now too old (in her thirties) to play a realistic marriage prospect for "an Indian boy of good family"; describing how she sees the Ramlila fitting in to the film thematically; musing on what Shakespeare scene would be best to showcase the decay of the troupe, possibly something from "Antony and Cleopatra"; discussing a scene in Congreve's "The Way of the World" which she thinks might be suitable for the film; commiserating about some bad news regarding the Reserve Bank, and noting that in spite of it, Merchant seems cheerful, which she suspects is an act; saying "of course you must stay in New York till everything is absolutely, absolutely settled"; saying she is "so angry" with Norton's and wishes they could sue them.