Letter from James Ivory, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1971 January 6 : typescript manuscript.

Thinking they need to turn over the situation with "Bombay Talkie" again before they put it to rest; reviewing how the film was first rejected from the New York Film Festival, and how the following chain of rejections from events like this gave him a bad premonition for the film's success; recounting the back-and-forth they had to engage in with the director of the San Francisco Film Festival; recalling how "Ismail was not for giving them the film at all" because he was insulted by the director's terms; remembering that the director responded that their acceptance of the terms the following day was too late, and submissions had closed; describing how bad he felt after that rejection, but how those hours of depression led to a change of heart when he realized "I would never be in thrall again to film festivals and the critics who batten off them and off directors, that I was beyond them, they couldn't harm me, and that I didn't need or want them"; specifying that one reviewer, Pauline Kael, is the exception, and that he really did expect more from her; relating his experience to one he and Ruth had upon hearing the Maestro's (Ray Satyajit) opinion about The Guru; recounting how he felt the morning of the New York premiere, and how he felt reluctant to go through with it; saying he ran into Lillian Ross on the street, and felt that it was a bad omen; continuing that after the film opened he "felt like I was bleeding to death"; saying that of 1,000 questionnaires they sent out about the film, they received three in return, and the feedback was not good; saying the following weeks were bad for all of them; closing with news that he is feeling better now, however, and that "as I told you, my friends and relations think I look wonderful."