‘Wounded animal’ Nish Panesar to execute revenge plot on The Six says EastEnders star Navin Chowdhry

After being hit by a bottle wielded by Denise Fox (Diane Parish) in Christmas Day’s incredibly dramatic EastEnders episode, Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) was in a coma for a long time.

The women collectively known as The Six used the opportunity to try and cover their tracks over the death of Keanu Taylor (Danny Walters) on the same night by concocting a story in which Keanu and Nish argued and Keanu attacked the other man with a bottle. Meanwhile they hid Keanu’s body in the burned-out cafe.

Then Suki Panesar (Balvinder Sopal) got the news that Nish had woken up. Denise was hugely relieved, knowing she didn’t have Nish’s murder on her hands.

Her relief was short-lived, though, as Suki reminded her that Nish might remember everything that happened and their fate, essentially, was in the hands of one of the most ruthless people in Walford.

Navin Chowdhry told us that, as Nish recovers, he becomes laser-focused on finding out what happened on Christmas Day.

‘I think his mission in life at this stage is to find out exactly what happened, for two reasons,’ he said.

‘He wants to seek retribution and revenge for what happened to him, but also it’s the lack of control and the power others have over him with them knowing something that he doesn’t, which aggravates him. So his whole point of existence at this stage is to find out exactly what happened.’

Nish also has to come to terms with the fact that his marriage to Suki is now over and she wants her future to be with Eve Unwin (Heather Peace). Navin said that this is incredibly hard for Nish to deal with and he will react by trying to hurt Suki.

‘Someone like Nish struggles to accept anything which is not on his terms. His initial reaction to grant Suki what she wants, a divorce, isn’t necessarily based on him accepting the truth, it’s just a step for him to again exert some kind of power.

‘The only way that he can deal with this breakup and rejection is to hurt Suki – which means taking everything, all the businesses and properties. He wants to leave her with nothing because he feels that is essentially what she has done to him.’

Navin said that Nish will play a long game as he seeks revenge, and won’t hesitate to draw other people into his scheme, including Kat Slater (Jessie Wallace) with whom there are the beginnings of a potential romance – though ‘with Nish of course, you know that nothing is ever straight forward,’ according to Navin.

‘Nish is the very definition of a wounded animal and he has to prove to himself and others who he is again,’ he speculated. ‘He needs to find a way to put himself back on top.

‘He is profoundly bruised, not just emotionally but also egotistically, about what has happened. So of course, when your ego is bruised to that extent you have to find a way to heal that wound, but with somebody like Nish, he only knows one way of repairing that loss and that is to retaliate.’

The actor’s prediction for his character in the coming weeks is for much more drama to come, as he gets closer to the secrets The Six are hiding.

‘Nish is looking to re-establish his authority on everything and everybody around him and with that will bring more conflict,’ he warned.