David Lean a film adaptation of "A Passage to India" (1984), from E. M. Forster's 1924 novel of colonial conflicts in British-occupied India. Entirely shot on location in the sub-continent, this became his last completed film. He rejected a draft by Santha Rama Rau, responsible for the stage adaptation and Forster's preferred screenwriter, and wrote the script himself. In addition, Lean also edited the film with the result that his three roles in the production (writer, editor, director) were given equal status in the credits. Lean recruited long-time collaborators for the cast and crew, including Maurice Jarre (who won another Academy-Award for
A Passage to India (film) that scripts are not written, but rewritten. The director cast Australian actress Judy Davis, then 28, as the naive Miss Quested after a two-hour meeting. When Davis gave her interpretation of what happened in the caves — “She can’t cope with her own sexuality, she just freaks out” — Lean said that the part was hers. Davis had garnered international attention in Gillian Armstrong’s "My Brilliant Career" (1979) and had appeared in "A Woman Called Golda" (1982) as a young Golda Meir. Lean wanted Celia Johnson, star of "Brief Encounter", to play Mrs Moore, but she turned down the part