Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Film producer and co-founder of Merchant Ivory, known for literary adaptations like 'A Room with a View'.
On the island
Eight records
Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan
They come from Pakistan and they were my, you know, great musicians whom I worshipped actually.
Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja (from The Magic Flute)
I had never seen an opera before and I had never heard music like this. And I can never forget that. I came out actually crying, you know.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 ('Emperor')
I came to know this wonderful, wonderful pianist, great artist, Glenn Gould ... and one of the things which he played so beautifully is is Beethoven's Piano Concerto Vie Emperor.
There is music from our own film, The Guru, played by a great maestro, a Sitar Maestro, Vilayat Khan. It's a very, very beautiful piece of music.
This particular segment of music, I mean I can't begin to describe, had affected me so much. And I have incorporated this in my film, Mahatma and the Mad Boy, which was the film I directed.
And again, you know, a very good combination of synthesizer and some traditional Indian music, you know, and instruments with it.
I think among all the composers and people whom I have had and seen over the years, I think they are absolutely the greatest of our time.
She's called the Queen of Guzzles. She's like Nightingale of India.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:03What does a producer do?
Well, normally one has this idea of a producer smoking a cigar or chewing on a cigar and signing away cheques or raising money, which is of course a part of the game of the producer. But in our case it has been very fortunate because I get involved in the very first stages of the film.
Presenter asks
1:48Is [your charm] God-given, or is that required to be a producer?
I think it's it's God given really. It is God given and I think a producer has to have a quality which could sort of build confidence in the other people.
Presenter asks
4:20What kind of background did you come from?
Well, I came from a Muslim background. My father was a businessman and uh I had six sisters. They all live in Bombay. nineteen nieces and nephews. So it is a quite a huge family.
Presenter asks
5:12What did your father want you to be?
The keepsakes
The book
E. M. Forster, Henry James and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
I would combine the names Foster, James and Jabwala.
The luxury
to spend my time cooking away um and enjoy the meals. I think that would be a perfect way to spend on a desert island.
No, no, he wanted me to very much take up a profession like being a doctor or a lawyer. I mean, those are the two professions he really thought were the best.
Presenter asks
15:48How would you characterize the relationship that you have then with James Ivory?
You know, unless you have something sort of, you know, uh passionate commitment as such, you know, like Ruth as a writer, fiction writer, Jim as a director, and myself as a producer. I mean, we make a very good team together.
Presenter asks
19:11How difficult has it been for you to resist the temptation to join the bandwagon and to make cheap exploitation movies?
Well actually we have never sort of gone to or you know looked into a popular entertainment as such. We want to do something which we really believe in or we feel strongly about or committed to it, whether it be an original screenplay or a novel like Foster or Henry James or Gene Rees.
“I think a producer has to have a quality which could sort of build confidence in the other people ... if you have a kind of a quality which people can have that blind confidence in you or at least create a faith in them, then Practically 80% of your battle is won because then they believe in you.”
“He was extremely aware of his business activities and he was also a gambler. He loved horse racing ... One's fortune are made and one's fortunes are lost in a twinkle of an eye.”
“Yes, actually, it's also a satisfaction of a vendetta, like you've just proven yourself that why mess around? Here it is, the public will go and see something good.”