Ranjit Chowdhry
Indian actor (1955–2020)

Ranjit Chowdhry (19 September 1955 – 15 April 2020) was an Indian character actor, known for his roles in television, movies, and theatre. 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.
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 His other most noted role was in Last Holiday (2006), starring Queen Latifah.
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.
He was a guest star in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had appeared in two seasons of The Office and Prison Break.
Sanjay Gupta, who worked with Chowdhry on the film Kaante, tweeted that his performances were a joy and "Khatta Meetha is my favourite."
Personal life
His mother, Pearl Padamsee, was a well-known theatre personality, drama teacher and actress on stage and film.
“Ranjit Chowdhry” enters the record as indian actor (1955–2020). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ranjit, Chowdhry and Indian can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7293154. VIAF identifies the subject as 167630515. The Library of Congress control number is no2004091345. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1955, 2020, 2002 and 2006.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ranjit Chowdhry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.