Ismail Merchant
- Ismail Merchant was born in Mumbai on Christmas Day 1936. His father was a wealthy textile importer.
- Merchant studied business at New York University.
- Ismail Merchant, who went on to become one of the world's best known film producers, made his debut as a producer in 1960 with The Creation of Woman, which was nominated for an Oscar and played in competition at the 1961 Cannes film festival.
- For 20 years, Merchant Ivory Productions, the company he founded with director James Ivory, produced commercially succesful art cinema. They were joined later by a third partner, Indian author Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who was regularly a screenwriter on Merchant Ivory films.
- Director Alan Parker dubbed Merchant Ivory films the "Laura Ashley school of film-making".
- Ismail Merchant died on 25 May 2005