{"id":52800,"date":"2024-06-06T16:29:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T14:29:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=2052632"},"modified":"2024-06-06T18:09:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T16:09:41","slug":"eastenders-navin-chowdhry-nish-panesar-is-more-dangerous-than-ever","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/eastenders-navin-chowdhry-nish-panesar-is-more-dangerous-than-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"EastEnders\u2019 Navin Chowdhry: \u2018Nish Panesar is more dangerous than ever\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The actor talks exclusively to Johnathon Hughes about if the Walford villain\u2019s days really are numbered\u2026 <\/p>

By Johnathon Hughes\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 06 June 2024 at 14:29 PM<\/p>

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There\u2019s a rich history of evil EastEnders<\/a> patriarchs, and nasty Nish Panesar ranks pretty highly as one of the most despicable rogues in the gallery. This is a man who has physically and mentally abused his wife, manipulated his children, and committed murder in a jealous rage.<\/p>\n

Yet now the character is seeking atonement for his sins, having been diagnosed with a serious heart condition which means he has just months to live. After his many misdemeanours, it\u2019s a big ask for the family he tried to destroy to forgive him \u2013 that\u2019s if you buy his suspicious sob story in the first place\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you believe he\u2019s dying or not, this is huge currency for Nish,\u201d says Navin Chowdhry, speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com<\/a> about playing Walford\u2019s warped villain. \u201cHe was finally overpowered and driven out by his family a few months ago. While he was away he was given this blow about his health, but it\u2019s actually facilitated the next stage in his manipulation. It\u2019s a perverse card to play, but Nish will use any tool at his disposal for his own gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The medical bombshell has split the powerful Panesar clan into two camps: son Ravi and grandkids Nugget and Avani are Team Nish, and have agreed to draw a line under his mistakes and abhorrent past behaviour. On the other side of the divide is Nish\u2019s ex-wife Suki and other son Vinny, who are pretending all his forgiven while secretly plotting to fleece Nish of his business empire before he dies.<\/p>\n

The twist of making Nish a (possibly) dying man has brought a new dimension to the character, and whatever his endgame is, Chowdhry welcomed the challenge of trying to elicit sympathy for someone so sinister.<\/p>\n

\"Navin\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Navin Chowdhry as Nish Panesar in EastEnders.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC\/Jack Barnes\/Kieron McCarron<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cIf he hasn\u2019t got long left, he genuinely wants to reconnect and seek redemption. He was in prison for 20 years and wasn\u2019t there for a substantial part of his children\u2019s lives, and genuinely wants to experience them as a family. Nish is still flawed but there is an argument that there is humanity within us all, it\u2019s possible to find compassion somewhere in there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing him so weak and a shadow of his former self is really fascinating. One reason I came on board wasn\u2019t to just play an out and out villain, I wanted to humanise him in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chowdhry has been acting since he was a child and built an impressive career spanning more than 35 years. He gladly enthuses that joining EastEnders in 2022 is one of the best choices he\u2019s ever made, although he could\u2019ve ended up in Albert Square even earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been approached over the years,\u201d he reveals. \u201cWhenever it came my way either I was involved in other things, it was the timing or it just didn\u2019t fit in with what I wanted to do at that moment. But the universe has a funny way of delivering things at different moments, and when this part came along I thought, \u2018OK, let\u2019s have the conversation.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI met with our producer Chris Clenshaw, who has a wonderful energy about him. We had a long chat and it sounded so exciting. I was aware of the Panesar family as they were already on screen, and eventually I knew this was a part I had to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EastEnders,06-06-2024,6922,Nish\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Navin Chowdhry as Nish Panesar in EastEnders.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC\/Jack Barnes\/Kieron McCarron<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

And no wonder he\u2019s glad he did, as Chowdhry has been a revelation. A consistently engaging and charismatic performer, up until taking on Nish, audiences perhaps knew him best from his role in Teachers, Channel 4\u2019s quirky comedy drama from the early 2000s. Nice guy Kurt was as warm and lovable as Nish is narcissistic and dangerous, and Chowdhry relished the opportunity to get his teeth into something darker and showcase his range.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really keen to do it. Evil, sociopath, narcissist \u2013 all those words are thrown around to describe the character but it was the dynamics of the family drama that really appealed to me. It\u2019s interesting that Nish lost out on being part of his children\u2019s lives because of his own jealous anger and rage, and this murderous personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first met him after he was released from prison, we didn\u2019t know how he\u2019d be able to reconnect after 20 years away, and navigate the mistrust his family had towards him to regain power and control over them. And then there\u2019s his blind love for his wife, Suki, who has never really loved him in return. There\u2019d been so much hype about Nish, he\u2019d been spoken about for years, but we went slowly with the character at first, drip-feeding a few scenes a week. Then we started to see his true colours!\u201d<\/p>\n

Chowdhry has delivered many chilling moments on screen, particularly with the co-star he affectionately describes as his \u2018partner in crime\u2019, Balvinder Sopal, who plays Suki. Nish\u2019s creepy controlling coercion can be hard to watch, and Chowdhry admits it requires utter commitment and trust among his colleagues to create.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s a great ensemble at EastEnders, and the Panesars are particularly close,\u201d explains the actor. \u201cThat allows us to make choices, with Bal neither of us will hesitate in suggesting something in the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn one of my early scenes, it wasn\u2019t scripted but I felt we should see Nish kiss Suki on the lips for the first time. For their characters in that moment, the kiss demonstrated Nish\u2019s ability to overpower and humiliate his wife. The cast and crew have that trust and mutual respect to go to those places, and it\u2019s not something you\u2019d normally suggest on another acting job if you didn\u2019t know the person very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing a hateful bully to life saw Chowdhry draw on personal memories, as he recalled his late mother\u2019s experience of working for a charity helping victims of domestic abuse when he was growing up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an emotion attached to this part,\u201d he admits. \u201cMy mother was called out all hours, having to go police stations and hospitals, saving women from men like Nish. These kind of stories have been in my life for a very long time, a lot of what we built of Nish is from what I remember my mum talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nish\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Navin Chowdhry as Nish Panesar and Balvinder Sopal as Suki Panesar in EastEnders.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Chowdhry also recalls wanting to act from the age of five. After spending his childhood attending drama clubs and performing in youth theatre productions, he got an unbelievably big break in 1987 at the age of 15. After his father saw a poster advertising for an open audition for a movie, young Chowdhry impressed legendary director John Schlesinger and was chosen to star alongside Hollywood icon Shirley MacLaine in Madame Sousatzka, about a piano-playing child prodigy\u2019s relationship with his eccentric tutor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a magical adventure,\u201d he smiles, reminiscing about the formative experience he admits he rarely gets to talk about. \u201cI was doing my GCSEs at school in Bristol and I had three months off to film in London. My mum was my chaperone and I had a tutor on set.<\/p>\n

\u201cShirley MacLaine was wonderful, beautifully kind and nurturing, everybody was. Shabana Azmi played my mum \u2013 she is Bollywood royalty, the Meryl Streep of India. I actually presented her with an award just recently. To have people like her, Shirley and John as my first mentors was a joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came out of it with a different work ethic, having been entrusted with such a huge responsibility as the lead boy working with all these amazing people. I didn\u2019t know it at the time, but I definitely absorbed an adult approach to working. It started me off on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Shirley\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Shirley MacLaine and Navin Chowdhry in Madame Sousatzka.<\/span><\/figcaption> Odeon Films\/Getty Images<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

It certainly did, as is shown in Chowdhry\u2019s subsequent long list of credits. Asked to pick his personal highlights among roles in big franchises such as Doctor Who<\/a> and Star Wars<\/a> (he appeared in 2017\u2019s The Last Jedi) and high-profile dramas including Doctor Foster and Death in Paradise<\/a>, he reveals which ones stick out.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously my first job was incredibly special. Teachers was very exciting, the cast are still close to this day and it was nice to be part of something so loved and cool, which it really was at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Touch of Cloth (Charlie Brooker\u2019s cop show satire) were some of the best scripts I\u2019d ever read. Suranne Jones was also in it and I bumped into her last year \u2013 we\u2019re pestering Charlie to write some more but apparently he\u2019s been busy on some little show called Black Mirror!<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd EastEnders means a great deal to me. I tell the kids I\u2019m working with to take this moment in, because you don\u2019t know when you\u2019re going to get a run like this again. The Panesars are in a good place.\u201d<\/p>\n

They might not be if Nish knew what Suki and Vinny were up to behind his back, or if the convenient terminal illness turns out to be a hoax to get his feet back under the family table. Chowdhry won\u2019t be drawn on exactly what the future holds, but with so many ticking time bombs that could blow the dysfunctional dynasty apart at any minute, he teases the potential for some explosive times ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s up to the viewers what they choose to believe, but if illness is going to consume Nish, then he\u2019s not going to go quietly. Look at what he did when he was of good health \u2013 he behaved so recklessly and had no moral compass. There were no limits beforehand, imagine if he knew people are betraying him behind the scenes \u2013 he\u2019s got nothing to lose and could be more dangerous than he\u2019s ever been\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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