Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1967 March 24 : typescript signed.

Announcing that "Ismail is back, twice as big as life and full of energy"; describing Merchant's activities since his return; describing finally meeting James Fox, and declaring him "a perfect Esmond [from "Esmond in India"] and a perfect Jeremy [for what will become "The Guru"], not a good Laurence [for the "Shakespeare Wallah" sequel]"; saying CBS is forming a film production arm and he believe that they might get backing from them to make a film in India because it would be so cost-effective; passing on some feedback he got from Nazrul Rahman of the Tea Board and discussing the tea plantation film; telling her that "Sir Piggy-Brown" is in town, one of "the Red Brute's group," and he and Merchant will be meeting him, but he doesn't hold much hope for the meeting; remarking on a photograph [presumably from the premiere in Delhi] of Madhur with Marlon Brando and Satyajit Ray; expressing concern that she hasn't been getting his letters, since she doesn't refer to anything he says in them; saying he will "act on your request today and tomorrow" and he will send her a catalog from an Ingres show; mentioning a profile of Ooty [meaning the hill station town of Ootacamund] in the New Yorker, and that he saw Ved Mehta last week and he took Ivory to a gallery run by "those extraordinary Kumar brothers" where they were fed by them "surrounded by modern Indian paintings."