"I think there’s a lot of unfinished business."
Aaron Thiara – famous for playing Ravi Gulati in EastEnders – reacted to his character’s redemption and opened up about whether it would continue in future storylines.
The actor, originally from Wolverhampton, joined the BBC soap in 2022. Ravi was introduced as a fellow prisoner of Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).
When he was released, it emerged that he was linked to the Panesar family and was the secret son of villain Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry).
He ended up killing Ranveer Gulati (Anil Goutam), the man who had raised him. But he convinced Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) that she was the murderer.
Ravi is also a womaniser, having made enemies and romanced Denise Fox (Diane Parish) and her daughter Chelsea Fox (Zaraah Abrahams).
In recent months, however, viewers have seen a more humane side to Ravi in his efforts to be a good father to his children Davinder ‘Nugget’ Gulati (Juhaim Rasul Choudhury) and Avani Nandra-Hart (Aaliyah James).
In November 2023, Nish ordered Ravi to kill Eve Unwin (Heather Peace) after discovering Suki’s affair with her.
However, Ravi could not go through with it and he defended Suki against Nish, even throwing the latter out of the house, with support from his ex-lover Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy).
Viewers have been impressed with this redeeming character arc.
Commenting on the same, Aaron Thiara said:
“The joy of playing [Ravi] is even during the villainous things, he could be good, and there’s always the chance that while being good, it could still go the other way.
“It’s fun to play in that sense.
“I think there’s a lot of unfinished business and dynamics to explore between Ravi and Priya, and Ravi and Nish, not only recently but from the past too.
“That father and son relationship, and also what’s happening with Priya and Nish at the moment.”
Aaron’s portrayal of Ravi proved massively popular among viewers which led him to become one of the show’s most iconic South Asian characters.
For his performance as Ravi, the actor won the 2023 British Soap Award for ‘Villain of the Year’, which was a viewer-voted category.
In his winner’s speech, Aaron Thiara said: “Before I started, me and a few producers spoke about how we wanted to execute this character.
“We agreed on a character that you love to hate. If you hate him, that’s alright.
“And if you love him, that’s alright too.”
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