Ismail Merchant

Ismail Merchant (Gujarati: ઈસ્માઈલ મર્ચન્ટ) (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005) was an Indian-born film producer and director, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director (and Merchant's longtime professional and personal partner) James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

Merchant succeeded as an independent producer in Hollywood for more than 40 years. His strength lay in funding his projects, particularly in his ability to produce films for several million dollars less than those of his contemporaries.

Read more about Ismail Merchant:  Background, Merchant Ivory Productions, Cooking and Writing, Awards, Death, Further Reading

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