Letter from Ismail Merchant, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1967 July 3 : autograph manuscript signed.

Passing on Prabhu's accounts of "Shakespeare Wallah" in Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta; telling her that the deal with Paramount for "Vertical and Horizontal" has fallen through, and he fears "it will be difficult to get Vertical and Horizontal started" elsewhere; reporting that, on the other hand, "the Ustad film with the pop singer ["The Guru"] is really taken with great enthusiasm by some of the major companies" and "the financing will be easy to secure," but for the "Shakespeare Wallah" sequel, they will need "a complete script"; voicing his unhappiness at having spent so much "time without any concrete achievement" and lamenting the "vicious circle" he feels caught in; saying he "enjoyed reading about Simla from your letter-- I wish I were with you all"; describing Satyajit Ray's visit to New York after securing funding from Columbia for his movie "The Alien" with Peter Sellers [this was never produced]-- "He stayed with us and seem [sic] to have enjoyed New York-- Jim has written a Talk of the Town piece on him"; asking after the children and observing that they seem to have enjoyed Simla; saying that Jhab should still come to New York, in spite of his work trip being cancelled, if only to "get a good doctor to check his health."