Page 3 of letter has a newsprint photo of actress Eileen Heckert taped to the lower left corner, with an inscription by Ivory: "Eileen Heckert (Phyllis Elmendorf)".
Envelope addressed to Mrs. R. Prawer Jhabvala, 1-A Flagstaff Road, Delhi 6, India, postmark illegible; notes inscribed on recto by James Ivory, circa 2022.
Expressing some ambivalence what they have heard from Hamid Sayani, David Swope, and others, and what Ruth reports about the reception of "Shakespeare Wallah" in India; musing on what "the rejection of our efforts" means for them and their work, and what it says about India; asserting that "I don't care a bit" about the rejection of their films, "and it doesn't for an instant make India less attractive to make films in"; claiming he will only believe that the film is "the greatest box-office success in the history of Indian films ... when I see that several lakhs of rupees have been deposited in MIP's bank account"; asking how she feels about casting Margaret Rutherford in one of the films they are developing; passing on some gossip about Shashi and the Kendals-- apparently the Kendals have taken over Shashi and Jennifer's new flat in Bombay; asking what project she intends to tackle now, the Ustad film [later, "The Guru"] or the "Shakespeare Wallah" sequel; begging her again to come to America with Jhab and work with Ivory on scripts; noting that "every day the newspapers announce some new production set-up where films are to be made for television cheaply..." and they need to be part of this movement; saying "all the signs are right for V&H so far," and describing how he sees their slate of projects for the coming years, including "Nerve"-- "if Paramount likes it, I'm afraid we'll have to do it"; saying they have cast Joan Hackett in "Vertical and Horizontal," in spite of the fact that Lillian doesn't like her; musing on how wide the choice of actors is in America compared to India; signing off "Please tell Jhab to make sure he gets sent here!"