AN EMMERDALE star has confirmed he was axed by bosses as he broke down in tears.
Soap star Bhasker Patel was sensationally dropped from the long-running ITV show.
He's played the role of Rishi Sharma for 12 years but viewers watched his final scenes air on Thursday night.
Emmerdale bosses have killed-off his character, with the dad of three dying in tragic circumstances.
Appearing on ITV's Lorraine following his dramatic exit, Bhasker has revealed producers forced his hand in leaving.
Speaking to stand-in host Christine Lampard, he explained: "When the producer rang me and said: 'I need to talk to you and we're killing you off because we want a big story and it's going to be a big surprise.'
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"Because my 12 years at ITV, they let me do a lot of other work, so I felt a part of ITV, a part of Rishi, but at the same time… I was working in London as well.
"So when the producer said 'we're going to kill you off', I was like: 'Okay, that part of my life with this guy is over and I'm going to move on.''
As Christine, 44, read out tributes to his character from devastated fans, Bhasker started to cry.
He wiped away tears from his eyes as he heard the outpouring of love for him.
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The 67-year-old joined the soap as Rishi, the head of the then new Sharma family in 2011.
Rishi died alone after missing his son Jai’s wedding.
Viewers know Rishi was disinvited from the wedding because he refused to tell Jai who his biological father was.
In last night's episode he finally revealed the truth – that his brother is Jai’s biological father and Rishi took him on to spare the conservative family the shame of an unwed child.
Jai was horrified to hear the secret that meant he had his true parentage kept from him his entire life – but eventually he agreed to Rishi coming to the wedding even though he’d stormed off.
Emmerdale continues on ITV1 and ITVX.
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