Letter from Ismail Merchant, New York, New York, to Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Delhi, India, 1971 April 25 : typescript manuscript.

Apologizing for neglecting to write for "quite sometime"; describing that Ruth had last written about the public response to "Bombay Talkie"'s trailer, and had also observed how much longer films in the same genre run in the Western countries versus in India; saying how directors in this genre never care about Indian reception of their films, and correspondingly, he "couldn't care about Indian returns as long as our films show returns outside"; observing that, as of now, they have neither a home market nor an international market; forecasting that "we will have a success that to [sic] pretty soon from a film made in India and by all of us--You, Shashi, Jim, Subrata, and myself. One cannot despair"; feeling frustrated he cannot help Shashi in the film's distribution, but expressing relief that Jhab will be there to help; discussing that the National Film Theatre (British Film Institute) is putting on a short festival of Merchant Ivory films, including "The Householder", "Shakespeare Wallah", "The Guru", and "Bombay Talkie", from June 16th-20th; noting that it will serve as the British premiere of "Bombay Talkie" and that the film will run simultaneously at the Paris Pullman theatre; saying he would like to invite Jhabvala's mother, Catherine and John Freeman, and John Murray to the premiere; asking her if she would like to invite anyone else; exclaiming how excited he and Ivory are with the new film that is set to shoot outside of New York, beginning May 10th; writing that Walter Lassally is coming from London to photograph it; saying that since Holly Woodlawn dropped out, he and Ivory are seeing actors and working with George Trow and Michael O'Donoghue on a new script; saying "It is like a dream our first American film--I hope it will all go well"; explaining that Joe Saleh is financing the film for a total budget of $70,000; writing that Ivory will send more details, including the plot outline; asking that she write him as soon as possible, and that her letters are delaying; closing with an update on the Chaudhuri documentary, which Ivory is finishing by "sewing sound effects"; signing off with love.