Corrie: Dharkar adds colour to ‘too white’ soap

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Dharkar adds colour to ‘too white’ soap
Sajeda Momin
September 13, 2008
www.dnaindia.com

Award-winning actress Ayesha Dharkar has done what Bollywood babe Shilpa Shetty could not! Mumbai-born Dharkar is all set to join the longest running television soap opera in the world. The talented actress will play Tara Mandal in ITV’s Coronation Street from next month.

Coronation Street has been on TV screens since December 1960, with about 5 episodes every week. Set in Manchester the soap is extremely popular with millions loyally following the lives of the characters living in the fictional street.

Dharkar, who has already had her Hollywood debut when she appeared in Star Wars Episode II, has lately made UK her base. She has appeared in a film version of Meera Syal’s book Anita and Me and also sung and danced in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End musical Bombay Dreams.

The 31-year-old actress will be part of a spicy storyline involving a mother-daughter love triangle. The long-standing Indian resident of the street Dev Alahan, played by British Asian actor Jimmi Harkishin, has recently been seen having an affair with a former Bollywood star called Nina Mandal. The plot gets more exciting when Dharkar appears on screen as Nina’s daughter and Alahan falls for her.

According to sources, the producers hope Dharkar will become a favourite with viewers and key figure in the soap. It is believed that Coronation Street bosses signed up Dharkar after criticism from racial equality chief Trevor Phillips that British soaps were ‘too white’ and only showing Asian and black characters as stereotypes.

Phillips singled out the character of Alahan in Coronation Street as an example of tokenism. Alahan has been in the show since 1999 and acts as a divorcee who owns a number of shops in Manchester. His character until now has been dull. All that has changed in the last few weeks with the arrival of Nina and her long suffering husband Prem Mandal into the programme.

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haha, daft Dev strikes again - does he not remember what happened with that mad Maya?

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[pirtybirdy]

Funny how the soaps think they balance things out by tossing on a black family or an Indian family, but I've never seen a Korean, Chinese, or Japanese on Eastenders or Coronation Street. At least not when I've been watching them. I'd like to see a Chinese family come on the street or the square. Nonetheless, if Dev starts doing the daughter, that will be quite interesting. lol!

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Ayesha Dharker wants a love plot in real life
By Sue Crawford,
sundaymirror.co.uk
2/11/2008

She's been plunged right into the middle of a steamy storyline... but Corrie newcomer Ayesha Dharker is taking it in her stride. Ayesha, 29, is no stranger to drama, or indeed fame. She's been in films since she was eight and is a Bollywood star in her native India. Now, as flirty Tara in Coronation Street, she's walked straight into a love triangle involving shop owner Dev Alahan - and her mum.

Tara's set her sights on Dev (Jimi Harkishan), oblivious to the fact he's been bedding her mother Nina and won't take no for an answer. But while Tara can use her womanly wiles to snare her man, Ayesha's own techniques aren't so hot.

"I'm rubbish," she admits. "If I fancy someone I will ignore them - and nothing happens. I got the scripts and thought: 'What! Tara does that?' I would never say to someone, 'You obviously fancy me and I really fancy you'. But Tara has a scriptwriter... in real life you have to make it up yourself."

Not that shyness is entirely to blame for her single status. She divides her time between her parents' house in Bombay and a London flat. Film roles, including Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones, have taken her around the world. "You'd need a tracking device to date me," she says. "I'm never in one place long enough to get involved with anyone."

Ayesha has starred in the London musical Bombay Dreams and TV shows Cutting It, Doctors and Doctor Who - but her fulltime job was in Bollywood. She says: "It's a glamorous place to work - the stars are absolute gods in India." But Ayesha says she adores Manchester, adding: "Who knows, maybe I'll finally put down some roots..."

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Poor auld Dev - the big soft sack o' shite is getting henpecked again!