Chris Bisson is renowned as a soap legend.
The actor has played Jai Sharma on Emmerdale since 2009. The 46-year-old has been a mainstay in the Yorkshire village ever since and has been involved in some of the ITV show's most dramatic storylines.
His arrival in the Dales was marred by family drama over who was really in charge at the Sharma and Sharma sweet factory. Jai has also endured a turbulent love life on Emmerdale and has been romantically involved with key characters such as Charity Dingle, Megan Macey and Laurel Thomas.
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Jai remains a main character in Emmerdale and has recently been forced to thwart allegations he has relapsed with his cocaine addiction. Jai impressed his former lover, Laurel, when he defiantly stood up to Kim Tate and joined the strike with his workers at the HOP in episodes broadcast this week.
This prompted Laurel to tell Jai she wants to resolve their differences and get back together, but she was later shocked to discover a bag of drugs in his wallet. Jai was adamant he had put his addiction issues behind him, but struggled to explain what had happened.
He ended a dramatic week on the Dales in tears when Laurel decided to leave him for good after she discovered the children nearly caught Jai with drugs during the last time he relapsed. Jai has endured a rollercoaster journey on Emmerdale and was characterised as a villain on the ITV show.
However, he has recently undergone a redemption arc - and Chris admitted in 2017 that he spoke to ITV bosses about whether the character had run its course on the ITV soap. According to the Daily Star, he told OK!: "There were conversations being had about where we had gone with the character. Very frank and honest conversations with me and the producer saying 'have we gone too far now and it is time to call it a day or do we redeem him?'.
"But we came to the conclusion that actually he wasn’t a bad character. He came in as a much nicer character and he did go off the rails but we have really pulled him back and that’s lovely to play."
Chris also spoke about the direction Jai was taking during an appearance on Lorraine, but assured viewers they were now doing "great things" with the character.
Before he joined the Yorkshire Dales, Chris was a key member of the cast of Coronation Street. The actor played Vikram Desai on Weatherfield from 1999 - 2002, but quit the show after he became frustrated with his character's storylines.
He told Manchester Evening News in 2007: "I'd thought about leaving Coronation Street several times before I finally quit. That was because I hadn't had a decent storyline for a while.
"I have been an actor since I was 13 and I'm not particularly worried. I played the same part in Coronation Street for four years. The one thing that I am enjoying now is the idea of playing very different parts. I want to get some diversity back."
Emmerdale airs weekdays at 7.30pm on ITV and the ITV Hub
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