Heat and Dust (film)

Heat and Dust
Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
Directed byJames Ivory
Screenplay byRuth Prawer Jhabvala
Based onHeat and Dust
by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Produced byIsmail Merchant
StarringGreta Scacchi
Shashi Kapoor
Julie Christie
Zakir Hussain
CinematographyWalter Lassally
Edited byHumphrey Dixon
Music byRichard Robbins
Zakir Hussain
Production
company
Distributed byCurzon Film Distributors
Release date
  • 1 January 1983 (1983-01-01)
Running time
133 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish
Urdu
Hindi
Budget£2.2 million[1] or £1.1 million[2]
Box office$2.6 million (overseas est.)

Heat and Dust is a 1983 British historical romantic drama film, with a screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala based on her novel, Heat and Dust (1975). It was directed by James Ivory and produced by Ismail Merchant. It stars Greta Scacchi, Shashi Kapoor and Julie Christie.[3]

The plot of Heat and Dust follows two intertwined stories. The first is set in British India of the 1920s, and deals with an illicit affair between Olivia, the beautiful young wife of a British colonial official, and an Indian Nawab. The second, set in 1982, deals with Anne, Olivia's great-niece, who travels to India hoping to find out about her great-aunt's life, and while there, also has an affair with a married Indian man.

Heat and Dust form part of a cycle of film and television productions which emerged during the first half of the 1980s, reflecting Britain's growing interest in the British Raj.[4] In addition to Heat and Dust, this cycle included the films Gandhi (1982) and A Passage to India (1984), and the television series The Jewel in the Crown (1984) and The Far Pavilions (1984).[4] Heat and Dust was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. At the 1984 BAFTA Awards, it earned eight nominations, including Best Film, and won Best Adapted Screenplay for Ruth Prawer Jhabvala.

  1. ^ Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 120
  2. ^ "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 23.
  3. ^ Long, James Ivory in Conversation, p. 109
  4. ^ a b Long, The Films of Merchant Ivory, p. 128