Letter from Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, to James Ivory, New York, New York, 1971 February 20 : autograph manuscript signed.

Opening by saying, "This is going to be a complaining letter"; describing in detail her dismay and irritation at Merchant's taking on executive producer duties for "Flashman," to be directed by Richard Lester; elaborating on her concerns that the project is beneath him-- "a string of doll's weddings"-- and Merchant's divided attentions will adversely affect Ivory and their projects; telling herself "I really must try to adapt myself to his feelings and not indulge myself in mine. Only it's always been difficult for me not to wear everything on my sleeve"; continuing, "That brings me to Irritations No. 2 & 3"; describing irritation no. 2 as the pending appearance of a large photo of her on the cover of Illustrated Weekly, accompanying an article she wrote against her instincts, when she had expected Kushwant Singh to accompany the article with an image from "Bombay Talkie" instead; poo-pooing Singh's rationale for the photograph-- "he said my picture would be a very good selling point for the Parsi community (!!)"-- and lamenting the delayed publication date of March 21, "which will be quite useless all round since the film will have opened and no doubt closed by then in Bombay"; presenting Irritation No.3," Jhab's insistence that the Delhi premiere of "Bombay Talkie" be a charity event, with the proceeds going to Ministry official Gujral's favorite charity-- all this in return for Gujral's signing off on the censor certificate-- and her refusal to attend a Delhi premiere has upset Jhab, who put a great deal of time and effort into obtaining the certificate; confiding, "I hope this doesn't come up at all, as it might not, for by the time the film opens in Delhi (April? May?) Gujral may well be out of office."