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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 personal 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.〔''Cheek of the devil''〕 ==Background== Born Ismail Noormuhammad Abdul Rahman ((グジャラート語:ઈસ્માઈલ નૂરમોહમદ અબ્દુલ રહમાન), Urdu:,) in Bombay, he was the son of Hazra (maiden name, Memon) and Noormohamed Haji Abdul Rehman, a Mumbai textile dealer.〔http://www.filmreference.com/film/73/Ismail-Merchant.html〕 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.〔cited in ''Cheek of the devil''〕 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. He studied higher education at St. Xavier's College, Bombay and it was here that he developed his love for film.〔 When he was 22, he traveled to the United States to study at New York University, where he earned an MBA. He supported himself by working as a messenger for the United Nations and used this opportunity to persuade Indian delegates to fund his film projects.〔 He said of this experience that "I was not intimidated by anyone or anything".〔 Immersed in the new world of art and culture, it was here that Merchant discovered the films of Bengali director, Satyajit Ray, as well as those by European artists such as Ingmar Bergman, Vittorio De Sica, and Federico Fellini.〔 In 1961, he made a short film, ''The Creation of Woman''. It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and also received an Academy Award nomination. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ismail Merchant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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