Ismail Merchant
| Ismail Merchant | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Ismail Noormuhammad Abdul Rahman 25 December 1936 Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India (now Maharashtra, India) |
| Died | 25 May 2005 (aged 68) London, England |
| Resting place | Marine Lines, Mumbai, India |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Producer, director, actor, and screenwriter |
| Years active | 1960–2005 |
Ismail Merchant (25 December 1936 – 25 May 2005) was an Indian-born film producer and director. He worked for many years in collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director (and Merchant's longtime professional and domestic 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.
Born Ismail hammad Abdul Rahman (Gujarati: ઈસ્માઈલ નૂરમોહમદ અબ્દુલ રહમાન, Urdu: اسماعیل نور محمد عبد الرحمن,) in Bombay, he was the son of Hazra (maiden name, Memon) and Noormohamed Rehman, a Mumbai textile dealer. He grew up bilingual in Gujarati and Urdu, and learned Arabic and English at school. When he was 11, he and his family were caught up in the 1947 partitioning of India. His father was president of the Muslim League, and refused to move to Pakistan. Merchant later said that he carried memories of the "butchery and riots" into adulthood.
As a child at the age of 9, he delivered an emotionally riveting speech about partition, held at a political rally in front of a crowd of 10,000 people, inspiring the entire community. He met his first mentor in 1949 thanks to family networks and consequently aged 13, he developed a close friendship with Nimmi, an Indian film actress in her twenties, who introduced him to the glamorous studios of Bombay, which was the hub of India's film industry. It was she who inspired his ambitious rise to stardom.
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