Merchant Ivory Productions

Our Roots

From Shakespeare Wallah, the bittersweet tale of a wandering theatrical company in India, which established the company's reputation in 1965, to the richly detailed comic masterpiece A Room with a View in 1986, and the poignant Oscar-winning film Howards End in 1992, Merchant Ivory has provided audiences around the world with thoughtful and beautifully crafted features, documentaries, and shorts.

Merchant Ivory's films have been praised for their visual beauty, their mature and intelligent themes, and the shrewd casting and fine acting from which they derive their unique power.

Merchant Ivory is actually a collaboration of three remarkable people from three vastly different cultures: Ismail Merchant, the producer, born in India; Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the screenwriter, born in Germany and educated in England; and James Ivory, the director, born in the United States.

The scope of their subjects is as broad as their range of locations. They have explored India's past and present in such features as The Householder, Bombay Talkie, and Autobiography of a Princess; the clash of cultures in Shakespeare Wallah, Heat and Dust, and The Europeans; the conflicts and anomie of a modern urban life in Quartet, Roseland, and Slaves of New York; and the struggle for self-discovery in The Bostonians, A Room with a View, Maurice, and Mr. and Mrs. Bridge.

Our History Continued

It was with great sadness that Merchant Ivory Productions announced that Ismail Merchant, the companies founder and beloved producer for more than 44 years, passed away on May 25, 2005 after a brief illness in a London hospital where he was working on the film, The White Countess. The White Countess was released in 2005 followed by The City of Your Final Destination in 2007 which would be the last Merchant Ivory film screenplay adapted by longtime partner and collaborator Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Ruth passed away on April 3rd 2013.

James Ivory remains active with Merchant Ivory Productions and is currently directing an adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard II, based on a screenplay by Chris Terrio. Merchant Ivory is also in pre-production of Make the Wiseguys Weep based on a novel by David Evanier, and adapted for the screen by Ric Menello.

The Wandering Company

Ismail Merchant

Born in Bombay, Ismail Merchant lived and worked for most of his life in the West, completing his education at New York University where he earned his MBA. Merchant's first film was a theatrical short, The Creation of Woman, which was nominated in 1961 for an Academy Award and was an official entry from the United States in the Cannes Film Festival that same year. While en route to the Festival, Merchant met James Ivory, who agreed to form a partnership, Merchant Ivory Productions, More...

James Ivory

James Ivory was born in Berkeley, California and educated at the University of Oregon, where he majored in Architecture and Fine Arts. His first film, which he wrote, photographed and produced, was Venice: Theme and Variations, a half-hour documentary made as a thesis film for a degree in cinema from the University of Southern California. Ivory's evocation of the city was named by The New York Times in 1957 as one of the ten best non-theatrical films of the year. More...

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany, emigrated to England, and earned a degree in English literature from London University. In 1951 she moved to India after marrying an Indian architect; there, they raised three daughters. Since 1955 she has written a dozen novels, many of them set in India, including The Nature of Passion, Esmond in India, Travelers and The Householder, the last of which was her first motion picture project with Merchant Ivory Productions. More...