Ismail Merchant who is an acclaimed personality in the movie world hails from Bombay, India. He lived and worked for most of his life out of the country. He completed his education at New York where he did his Master in Business Administration.

In a career spanning three and half decades,Merchant has made some 40 feature films. Many of them collaborating with his pal, director James Ivory, and writer Ruth Prawer jhabvala. The actors who have featured in his film include Vanessa Redgrave, Isabelle Adjani, Christopher Reeve and Emma Thompson. They crave to work with him knowing full well that he will pay them a little more than his attention.

Merchant Ivory has also worked with an extraordinary number of fine actors through the years including Isabelle Adjani, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Christie, Denholm Elliott, Anthony Hopkins, Ben Kingsley, Daniel Day Lewis, Jeanne Moreau, Paul Newman, Vanessa Redgrave, Christopher Reeve, Maggie Smith, Jessica Tandy, Emma Thompson, Joanne Woodward, and many, many others.  

Ismail Merchant started his career by shooting a theatrical short The Creation of Woman which was nominated in 1961 for Academy Award and it was an official entry from the United States in Cannes Film Festival the same year. Thereafter Ismail met James Ivory and they both together formed a group called Merchant Ivory Productions to make English theatrical features in India for international market. Merchant's financial and marketing expertise as a producer greatly contributed to the team's success and enhanced their international profile.

The Householder was Merchat Ivory Production’s first feature and the first Indian film to be distributed worldwide by a major American company, Columbia Pictures. It was followed by three more Indian features, all in some way funded wholly or partly by an American studio: Shakesspeare Wallah (1966), The Guru (1969), and Bombay Talkie (1970).

The following are the list of films made by Merchant Ivory Productions