Ismail Merchant

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 1986

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ismail Merchant, the film producer, went into partnership with the director James Ivory 24 years ago. During those years, their films have included Shakespeare Wallah, The Bostonians, Heat and Dust and A Room With A View.

In conversation with Michael Parkinson, Ismail Merchant talks about his childhood in India, about his break into films and about the very successful partnership. He also chooses the eight records that he would take to the mythical island.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Book: Works by E.M Forster and Works by P D James and Works by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala Luxury: Cooking range

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 1986, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. I cast away today is a man who makes movies.
0:33.6	24 years ago he went into partnership with the American director James Ivory,
0:38.0	and today that partnership still prospers and flourishes.
0:41.5	More than that, a Merchant Ivory film has come to represent quality
0:45.2	and style, rare commodities in today's increasingly Toddbury marketplace.
0:49.5	The films they've made include Shakespeare Waller, the Bostonians,
0:53.0	Heat and Dust, and most recently the splendid A Room with A View.
0:57.0	Those films were directed by James Ivory and produced by our castaway Ishmael Merchant.
1:03.2	Ishmael, it's easy to define, I think most people know what a director does in the film.
1:06.7	What does a producer do?
1:07.7	Well, normally one has this idea of a producer smoking a cigar or chewing on a cigar and signing away checks or raising money which is of course a part of the game of the producer.
1:21.0	But in our case it has been very fortunate because I get involved in the very
1:25.2	first stages of the film from the conception of the idea, whether it is an original story or
1:31.2	it is from a novel, and Jim Ivory, Ruth Jabwala and I, you know, think
1:36.5	about it together. I mean if Ruth has brought something to us or to our attention, then Jim
1:42.0	would read it and I would read it or or if I were to do it, then they would
1:45.0	read it. So this all works as a team together.
1:48.0	Ruftheavara of course is the writer, and you had a similar long association with us with as you have with James Avery.
1:54.0	I read a little article actually which said about you that you've got the cheek of the devil and the charm of an angel.
1:58.5	Now is that God given or is that required to be a producer? I think it's God given really. It is God given and I think a
	...

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