Thursday, May 26 2005 07:55 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Acclaimed India-born director Ismail Merchant, who in partnership with American producer James Ivory, came up with blockbusters like "A Room With a View," and "Howards End", died in London yesterday (May 25, 2005). He was 69.

A spokesman of the Merchant-Ivory production company's London office said Merchant died in Queen Elizabeth hospital yesterday afternoon after a brief illness.

The Merchant-Ivory collaboration, which commenced in 1961, when the India-born director made the American producer on their way to Cannes Film Festival, earned them six Oscars, including four for best picture - with German-born screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

Merchant and Ivory made some 40 films together, including exquisitely made period drama "A Room With a View" and "Howards End", both based on P M Forster's novel, "Heat and Dust" starring Shashi Kapoor and "The Remains of the Day".

"The Mystic Masseur", based on the novel by Nobel laureate V S Naipaul, is Merchant's latest work as Director and was released in 2002.

Merchant's film "In Custody", based on a novel by Anita Desai, and starring Shashi Kapoor, won Indian National Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Costume and Best Production Design.

A versatile talent, Marchant was a renowned chef and authored a number of books on cuisine and making some of his films like "The Deceivers" and "The Proprietor"

Born in Bombay on December 25, 1936, Merchant has lived and worked for most of his life in the West, completing his education at New York University where he earned his Masters Degree in Business Administration.

Merchant's film "The Creation of Woman" 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.

On way to Cannes, Merchant met Ivory and both agreed to form Merchant Ivory Productions to make English-language feature films in India for the international market.

"The Householder" was Merchant-Ivory's first Indian film to be distributed worldwide by a major American company, Columbia Pictures. It was followed by more Indian features, including Shakespeare Wallah (1965), The Guru (1969), and Bombay Talkies (1970).

In addition to producing, Merchant has directed a number of films and two television features. For television, he directed a short feature entitled "Mahatma and the Mad Boy," and a full-length television feature, "The Courtesans of Bombay," made for Britain's Channel Four.

Merchant's third feature film as Director, "Cotton Mary", set in Kerala and starring Madhur Jaffrey, Greta Scacchi, and James Wilby, tells the story of an Anglo-Indian nurse in search of her identity in independent India.

The film was considered as a fine example of Merchant's ability to combine the best of East and West in modern cinema.

The American release of "The Golden Bowl" in April of 2001, starring Nick Nolte, Uma Thurman and Anjelica Huston, marked the Fortieth Anniversary of Merchant's career in film production, a career that has already earned the Merchant Ivory team a place in The Guinness Book of World Records for the longest partnership in independent cinema.

The latest Merchant Ivory Production, "Le Divorce", based on best-selling novel by Diane Johnson and adapted for the screen by Jhabvala, stars Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Stockard Channing, Matthew Modine, Sam Waterston and Leslie Caron and is expected to be released this summer by Fox Searchlight.

Merchant was also a renowned chef and author of a number of books on cuisine, including Ismail Merchant's Indian Cuisine; Ismail Merchant's Florence; Ismail Merchant's Passionate Meals and Ismail Merchant's Paris: Filming and Feasting in France.