Letter from James Ivory, Mumbai, India, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1970 February 9 : typescript signed.

Providing his positive opinion on the daily screeners; describing the positive, happy attitude that he and the cast and crew have had so far during filming; summarizing the only exceptions to this relatively nice atmosphere, which were an argument between the camera and production departments and "a tiff" between Shashi Kapoor and Subrata Mitra; wishing that Jennifer Kendal would "learn to take her light better" and position her face more to its advantage; recounting the filming that's been done so far, including the Jubilee party, a scene in the car outside the Taj Mahal Hotel, Kendal's run away from the hotel, scene 39 "on the porch", "the pink dog scene", an unspecified scene with Bose and Mala, "the big scene in the bedroom", and the murder; briefing her about scenes that he hasn't shot, namely one with Hari at the pan-wallah and a shot of the facade of the hotel ("how would Mitra light the whole exterior of the Taj Mahal I ask you"); expressing his concern about "this business of Zia [Mohyeddin]'s costumes", with the exception of "Hari's murdering clothes [...] now there, he looks like a decadent poet. Just right."; confirming that he does want "that new Nadira scene," which he wants to be loud and lively; describing an evening he spent socializing with Aparna Sen and Utpal Datta and their guests, "three tremendous young men named Aga Jalal, Anwar Ali, and Amitab Baccia [Amitabh Bachchan]"; stating that he thinks the party in the film should be a bit like this party, and explaining why he believes it will improve the film; relaying Ismail Merchant's decision that "we are having the wrestling match, no matter what"; sketching out their progress on "the shrine scene" and the "arrival of the stars scenes"; telling her that they need more interstitial scenes and that right now "this film is dialogue scene after dialogue scene"; updating her about the overall progress of the shooting ("we have done one third of the script as far as the printed pages go") and the corresponding amount of screen time that has been shot; projecting how long the movie will be at this rate; discussing travel arrangements for Jhabvala's upcoming trip to the set; justifying the "gossiping" they do, to which Ismail Merchant has objected; allowing her to send an attempt at a shortened scene two, but expressing that "I think that it should remain like it is" and explaining how he thinks of the scene's importance in the story's arc; asking her to bring "some of those soft chocolates from Wengers that Jhab makes" when she comes; telling her about the purse of a recent horse race ("69 lakhs"), which was "the largest in the history of racing"; asking Jhab "or somebody" to call "that Bhavani" as he has not heard from him.