Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, New York, New York, [1965] July 20 : autograph manuscript signed.

First aerogramme: Hoping things were well between them and Foo (Felicity Kendal), Shashi, and Jennifer in the aftermath of the Berlin Film festival, and Madhur's win for best actress for "Shakespeare Wallah"; analyzing their emotions and the motivations of the festival judges, and the effects for the film; claiming not to care about being "mentioned" or not, laying out the reasons, and asking them not to worry about it; telling Ivory that he is "being a trifle over gallant" in saying that "Shakespeare Wallah" is very much her work [see MA 23840.186]; saying that these kinds of debates are "a childish game" and they should be focusing on what lies ahead, like the Maestro (Satyajit Ray) does; asking if a story she read in the paper yesterday is true, that Madhuri Mukherjee-- the lead actor of "Charulata"-- "overdosed on sleeping tablets just before the Berlin Film Festival"; claiming she still has things to say and will continue on a second aerogramme.
Second aerogramme: Admonishing them that, "now that all the excitement is over," Merchant should take sole charge of selling "Shakespeare Wallah," and Ivory should move on to writing and planning their next film, so that when they get funding from the sale of "SW" they can immediately go into production on their next project; saying they must "prove yourself on home ground" by making their next film in America; reacting with both humor and concern to the news of the severity of Merchant's recent illness [see MA 23840.187]; observing that he is "rather prone to ailments under strain"; mentioning that their friend Cyril-- who claims Merchant "told him [he was] a Parsi"-- wrote something positive about the Kendals, which she was glad of, since "God knows, SW hasn't so far been of much benefit to them"; mentioning that publishers Hamish Hamilton and John Murray have expressed interest in Geoffrey Kendal's diary; telling them that "The Householder" played in Delhi again and Jhab took his brother and sister-in-law to see it, and said it was "packed & the audience extremely enthusiastic"-- "I really feel that poor, neglected film is coming a bit into its own"; passing on news from a letter from Jennifer, including the idea that Foo (Felicity Kendal) will return to India, which Ruth is very opoosed to, believing her career will do much better in England; asking how they are doing in New York and hoping they make some money soon.