I HAD just come back from Sunil Dutt’s funeral. I was very tired and quite unhappy, Suddenly I got a call from Ismail’s brother-in law, Wahid Chauhan that Ismail was no more.

I just couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I can take it, I’m too shattered. I just spoke to him three days ago, and he seemed fine.

He was admitted in a London hospital for treatment of ulcers and everything was going fine. He was going to be discharged tomorrow, when the ulcers ruptured. He had just got back from China, where he was shooting a film, and when I spoke to him I told him to take it easy, because he would get really worked up about work.

Ismail was a workaholic. So he came across as an extrovert, because of his whole demeanour, actually he used to worry a lot. I’ve known him since 1961, when both of us were very young and raw, and I did Merchant-Ivory’s first two films, and got Ismail as a lifelong friend.

He was a terrific guy, and my best friend. He was the one jo acchhe aur bure waqt mein hamesha mere saath raha.

I was just telling my daughter Sanjna, that 21 years ago, when my wife Jennifer died, Ismail cooked a meal for over 100 people, all by himself.

He was a marvellous man and someone who loved to live life. He believed in charity. I remember that when his last film Le Divorce was released in America, he wanted to bring it to India.

He held premieres in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai, the proceeds of which went to an organisation called Pratham—which teaches street kids Hindi and English. He wanted to make a film on Goddess Kali with Tina Turner, for which they had come to Mumbai last year, and he was really excited about it.

It’s sad that we will never see this film. I’ll always miss him. Life will not be the same without Ismail.
As told to Harneet Singh

filmography
As producer
The Householder (1963)
Shakespeare-Wallah (1965)
The Guru (1969)
Bombay Talkie (1970)
Savages (1972)
Helen, Queen of the Nautch Girls (1973)
The Wild Party (1975)
Autobiography of a Princess (1975)
Sweet Sounds (1976)
Roseland (1977)
The Europeans (1979)
Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980)
Quartet (1981)
Heat and Dust (1983)
The Bostonians (1984)
A Room with a View (1985)
Maurice (1987)
The Deceivers (1988)
Slaves of New York (1989)
Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (1991)
Howards End (1992)
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Jefferson in Paris (1995)
Surviving Picasso (1996)
A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries (1998)
Cotton Mary (1999)
The Golden Bowl (2000)
Divorce, Le (2003)
Heights (2004)
The White Countess(2005)

As director
In Custody (1993)
The Proprietor (1996)
Cotton Mary (1999)
The Mystic Masseur (2001)