Rich tributes were paid to noted filmmaker Ismail Merchant in an art house in London with several film stars recalling the qualities of head and heart of the India-born director.

Best known for his partnership with James Ivory, Merchant died on May 25. He left behind a legion of actors and actresses who remembered him fondly at a memorial service in Mayfair late last week.

The art house Curzon in Mayfair could just about hold the stars, friends, extras, cooks (Merchant was a great cook) and critics who remembered him fondly.

As a producer, Merchant made 37 films, among them "The Remains of The Day", "Heat and Dust" and "A Room With A View". He directed six, including "The Mystic Masseur".

James Wilby, who starred with Hugh Grant in Merchant and Ivory's "Maurice" in 1987, was there, as too were Donald Sinden, Stephen Fry and James Fox, who played Lord Darlington, in "The Remains of the Day" in 1993.

So were two 19-year-old film hopefuls, Leonara Lonsdale and Charles Reston, who acted as "runners" on "The White Countess", Merchant's last film. It stars Vanessa Redgrave and Ralph Fiennes and will be released next month.

Salman Rushdie recalled the "very good fish curries" he shared with Merchant. "He was always interested in me writing an original script for him and he kept telling me that he had the perfect film for me to write. It is very sad that it didn't happen."

Felicity Kendal, cast in the 1965 "Shakespeare-Wallah", was one of the first to arrive at the memorial.

Film critic Derek Malcolm, spoke of Merchant "who, in Bombay, took me to a transvestite knocking-shop" then played a prank, by tapping on his hotel door at night, pretending to be a call girl.

Emma Thompson spoke of a terrible row she had with Merchant when he asked her to work an extra Sunday while Simon Callow recalled how Merchant asked him to play the elegant male lead role in "A Room With A View".

Tina Turner, the singer, was also at the memorial. Merchant died before he could begin a film starring her as Kali in "The Goddess". Turner said she had been looking forward to playing a woman who danced on a tiger with a necklace of human skulls:

"I spent the summer with Ismail in India, He said that he had been looking for me to do the part for about seven years."

Ivory said that the film had been abandoned. "It was really Ismail's film. The films he directed were so different from mine."