EastEnders spoilers follow.
EastEnders star Aaron Thiara has opened up about Ravi Gulati’s new feud with the Mitchells.
In dramatic scenes next week, Ravi gets the wrong end of the stick after confiscating Avani’s phone, believing she is going out with Barney.
Unaware that she is actually seeing older boy Mason, things take a shocking turn after Avani appears upset, Ravi mistakenly targeting Barney before things escalate between Ravi and Barney’s dad Teddy.
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Opening up about Ravi’s initial suspicions at the start of the week, Aaron explained that his character senses “that there is something not quite right”.
“Ravi is pretty street smart so his instincts immediately make him think it’s something else,” he said. “Ravi then takes Avani’s phone for information but he realises from Priya that it’s the wrong move to make because Avani will always hold it against him.
“Within those moments he second guesses his gut instincts, but later he realises his gut instinct was right.”
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When Avani arrives home upset, Ravi’s “initial reaction is complete and utter heartbreak that his daughter is hurt” and “his number one priority is to comfort her, because of the character that Ravi is we know all hell is going to break loose”.
“His main drive is to get Barney to confess. Obviously Barney is telling the truth, but this infuriates Ravi even more as he thinks he is lying, so as the situation unfolds, Ravi just gets further and further into this spectacle of interrogation.”
Following the scrap with Teddy, Aaron expressed excitement at watching the growing feud between the Panesars and the Mitchells pan out.
“What I was excited about, and what I hope the fans will get excited about, is that we’re finally going to see the Panesars go against the Mitchells and vice versa,” he said.
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“Can you say Ravi is the head of the family? No, not the Panesars but possibly his own family, and you’ve obviously got Teddy who is the head of his subset of the Mitchells with Harry and Barney.
“These are two men that are leaders. There’s an understanding between the two of them, in terms of how they handle things, doing dodgy things and talking in a particular language, and essentially I think both parties feel ‘well you took something from me, so I’m going to take something from you’ and they’re going to deal with things in their way.”
As for whether this has kicked off an all-out battle, he teased: “You would suspect so, especially considering the characters that are involved. Ravi is the type of character who forgives but never forgets. This isn’t the end of it.”
EastEnders airs on Mondays-Thursdays at 7.30pm on BBC One. The show also streams on BBC iPlayer, where most episodes drop early at 6am ahead of their TV broadcast.
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