Ranjit Chowdhry

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]

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]