Emmerdale's Rishi star Bhasker Patel confirms shock character death wasn't his choice

ok.co.uk:

Emmerdale actor Bhasker Patel said goodbye to his long-running character Rishi Sharma in a shocking instalment from the Dales last night (27 July), leaving fans devastated.

After his stunning exit, which ended a 12 year stint on the smash hit soap, Bhasker appeared on ITV’s Lorraine to speak with guest host, Christine Lampard, where he confirmed the surprise death wasn't his idea.The veteran actor revealed producers informed him they were going to "kill him off".

He said: "Getting a job like this, it was like a godsend, and then when the producer rang me and said, 'we need to talk to you and we're killing him off because we want a big story, and it's going to be a big surprise." The actor expressed his gratitude to ITV for letting him do "a lot of other work" during his tenure on Emmerdale, and said he felt a "part of ITV".

He added: "When the producer said 'we're going to kill you off', I was like, 'okay, that part of my life with this guy, it's over, and I'm going to move on'." In response, Christine said: "It's brutal though, isn't it? ‘We're going to kill you off’, what a sentence to hear." Later, the host asked what Bhasker would miss most about his co-star Chris Bisson, who plays his on-screen son Jai Sharma.The 67 year old replied: "He is a cheeky one while filming, he always wants to make me laugh - and he felt that Rishi should be a jovial dad or whatever, so even in serious scenes and serious storylines, he would get kind of a glint, and I would go ‘no please don’t do it [make me laugh]’, so I think that, I will miss." Reflecting on viewers’ shocked and devastated response to the dramatic twist, Christine reiterated it was "the shock the writers wanted".