Bhasker Patel has opened up about his shock Emmerdale exit, revealing it wasn’t his decision to leave the ITV soap.
The actor played Rishi Sharma for 12 years but in dramatic scenes that aired on Thursday, his character died after falling down the stairs.
Bhasker’s exit had not been announced by bosses and the death blindsided viewers.
The star appeared on Friday’s episode of Lorraine alongside Chris Bisson, who plays his on-screen son Jai Sharma, where he recalled being told his time in the Dales was set to come to an end.
Bhasker explained: “The producer rang me and said: ’I need to talk to you and we’re killing you off because we want a big story and it’s going to be a big surprise.”
″[During] my 12 years at ITV, they let me do a lot of other work, so I felt a part of ITV, a part of Rishi, but at the same time... I was working in London as well.
“So when the producer said ‘we’re going to kill you off’, I was like: 'OK, that part of my life with this guy is over and I’m going to move on.”
Host Christine Lampard replied: “It’s brutal though: ‘we’re going to kill you off’. What a sentence to hear!”
Thursday’s episode saw Bhasker’s on-screen family in the spotlight as his character revealed to Jai that he wasn’t really his biological father.
His dad was actually Rishi’s brother, who had an affair with his mother.
The action all took place on the morning of Jai’s wedding to Laurel Thomas and the groom reacted angrily to the news, barring Rishi – who brought him up as his own – from attending his big day.
Jai later cooled off and realised Rishi wasn’t to blame for the deception but sadly his epiphany came too late, as the soap cut from the wedding reception to a shot of Rishi laying dead.
Tonight’s Emmerdale will see Jai learn of his dad’s death and Chris previously said that he “cried my eyes out” while filming the heartbreaking scenes.
“It was difficult and they were long emotional days – I felt wiped out by the end of filming,” he told the Daily Express.
“But I tried to give it my all. We try to get inside the heads of the characters.”
Emmerdale airs on ITV and ITVX at 7.30pm on weekdays.
Watch the full interview below...