Letter from Ismail Merchant, Mumbai, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York 1971 February 12 : autograph manuscript.

Writing that it's five in the morning and he can't sleep; mentioning his plane was delayed by at least an hour, but at least he had no issues with customs; saying the majority of the cast of "Bombay Talkie" was there to greet him; saying he spoke to Ruth twice, once from Delhi and another time from Bombay; scolding Ivory for not sending her the list of music he wanted for his Chaudhuri documentary "Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization"; reporting that he and the cast just want to get the Indian premiere of "Bombay Talkie" over with; discussing details for a Merchant Ivory film festival he is collaborating on with the help of London Film Festival programmer Ken Wlaschin; hoping to put this festival on with the British Film Institute in the first week of June, which would be followed by a commercial release of "Bombay Talkie" in Paris the same week; saying he has secured £200 for Ivory's personal account that should arrive within the week; impressing the importance of Ivory wrapping the documentary so they can begin production on "Sunny Side Up" (Ivory notes this title in his annotations: "what that refers to, I don't know"); writing that everyone will miss Ivory in India; bidding him to write Tony Korner, and signing off with love.