Ranjit Chowdhry

Ranjit Chowdhry (19 September 1955 – 15 April 2020)^[1] was an Indian character actor, known for his roles in television, movies, and theatre.^[2] He appeared in two episodes of The Office, as Vikram, a telemarketer who worked with Michael, and was briefly hired for The Michael Scott Paper Company.

Ranjit Chowdhry
Born	19 September 1955 Mumbai, India
Died	15 April 2020 (aged 64) Mumbai, India
Other names	Ranjit Chowdhary Ranjit Chowdhury
Children	1
Parent(s)	Pearl Padamsee (mother), Alyque Padamsee (Step-father)

For his role as Rocky in Deepa Mehta's 2002 film Bollywood/Hollywood, he was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role at the 23rd Genie Awards^[3][4] His other most noted role was in Last Holiday (2006), starring Queen Latifah.^[5]

Life and career

Ranjit was born and raised in Mumbai in a family with a theatre background, where he received his early education at Campion School, Mumbai, and started his acting career. His father is from a Gujjar background, while his mother, Pearl Padamsee, was of partial Jewish descent on her mother's side, but remained Christian during her life. He made his film debut in Basu Chatterjee's Khatta Meetha, following which he played prominent parts in Hindi comedy classics such as Basu Chatterjee's Baton Baton Mein (1979) and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Khubsoorat (1980). Thereafter, he moved to the United States in the early 1980s. He wrote the screenplay and acted in Sam & Me (directed by Deepa Mehta), which won an honorable mention at Cannes in 1991.^[6]

He was a guest star in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had appeared in two seasons of The Office and Prison Break.^[7][8][9]

Sanjay Gupta, who worked with Chowdhry on the film Kaante, tweeted that his performances were a joy and "KHATTA MEETHA is my favourite."^[8]

Personal life

His mother, Pearl Padamsee, was a well-known theatre personality, drama teacher and actress on stage and film. His stepfather, Alyque Padamsee, was a theatre actor and director who also headed an advertising company in Mumbai. He had one older sister named Rohini (c. 1951 – 26 September 1961), who died from nephritis.^[10][11][12]

Death

Chowdhry was in Mumbai for a dental procedure near the end of 2019, and was stuck in India due to the spread of COVID-19 and related lockdown.^[7][9]Chowdhry was admitted into Breach Candy Hospital, in Mumbai, on 14 April 2020 for a ruptured ulcer in the intestine, and underwent emergency surgery. He died on 15 April 2020 due to complications from surgery.^{[13] [14]}

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Khatta Meetha	Russie Mistry
1979	Baton Baton Mein	Sabhi Perreira
1980	Khubsoorat	Jagan Gupta
1981	Chakra	Benwa
1981	Kaalia	Boot Polish Boy
1990	Lonely in America	Arun
1991	Sam & Me	Nikhil 'Shwartza' Parikh
1991	Mississippi Masala	Anil
1993	The Night We Never Met	Cabbie
1994	It Could Happen to You	Mr. Patel
1994	Bandit Queen	Shiv Narain
1994	Camilla	Officer Kapur
1994	The Mesmerist	Damodar
1994	Boozecan	Snake
1995	The Perez Family	Indian immigration official
1996	Girl 6	Indian Shopkeeper
1996	Fire	Mundu
1996	Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love	Babu
1996	I'm Not Rappaport	Kamir
1997	His & Hers	Taxi Driver
1998	Such a Long Journey	Pavement Artist
1999	Coming Soon	Afshin
2000	Autumn in New York	Fakir
2000	King of the Jungle	Mr. Sith
2002	Bollywood/Hollywood	Rocky
2002	Kaante	Det. Constable
2005	Building Girl	Mr. Singh
2006	Last Holiday	Dr. Gupta
2006	American Blend	Yogi
2006	Kettle of Fish	Doorman
2006	Prison Break	Dr. Marvin Gudat	2 episodes
2006	Hope & a Little Sugar	Ghosh
2007, 2009	The Office	Vikram	Episodes: "Money" "Dream Team"
2009	Today's Special	Regular #1
2010	God's Land	Raja Chatterjee
2011	Breakaway	Mr. Patel Senior

References

1. "Khubsoorat actor Ranjit Chowdhry passes away at the age of 65". PINKVILLA. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
2. Slowly, With Love Rafta Rafta, Theatre Review, 3 May 2008.
3. Bollywood Hollywood gets 5 Genie nominations Times of India, 3 January 2003,
4. Article describing a movie with Ranjit nominated for an award Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine 3 January 2003.
5. Interview with Ranjit Chowdhry including a photograph Rediff.com, 13 January 2006.
6. Melnyk, George (1 May 2014). Film and the City: The Urban Imaginary in Canadian Cinema. Athabasca University Press. ISBN 978-1-927356-59-3.
7. Haring, Bruce (17 April 2020). "Ranjit Chowdhry Dies: 'The Office' And 'Prison Break' Star Was 64". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 18 April 2020 – via Yahoo!.
8. Boucher, Ashley (17 April 2020). "The Office Actor Ranjit Chowdhry Dies at 65, Remembered as 'a True Original'". People. Retrieved 18 April 2020 – via Yahoo!.
9. O'Connor, Roisin (18 April 2020). "Ranjit Chowdhry death: The Office star and 'towering icon' of Bollywood dies aged". The Independent. Retrieved 18 April 2020.
10. Singh, Sangeetha (9 November 2002). "The Alyque Padamsee brand of life". Times of India. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
11. Roy Mitra, Indrani (4 October 2006). "A great ad is an ad that generates great sales". Rediff. Archived from the original on 22 January 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
12. SenGupta, Anuradha (3 August 2008). "Being Alyque Padamsee: India's dream merchant". CNN-IBN. Archived from the original on 25 January 2010. Retrieved 9 February 2010.
13. "'The Office' Actor Ranjit Chowdhry Dies at 64". TMZ. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
14. April 17, Lauren Huff; EDT, 2020 at 08:54 PM. "Ranjit Chowdhry, 'The Office' and 'Prison Break' actor, dies at 64". EW.com. Retrieved 14 June 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links

• Ranjit Chowdhry at IMDb
• Interview with Ranjit Chowdhry including a photograph