EastEnders star addresses return after abrupt exit – And the reason will leave you COMPLETELY SHOCKED

Ravi Gulati (Aaron Thiara) is as complex as a character comes in EastEnders.

See, he’s capable of great love. He’d move Heaven and Earth for his partner Priya Nandra-Hart (Sophie Khan Levy), and children Avani and Nugget (Aaliyah James and Juhaim Rasul Choudhury), utterly determined to provide them with the best life possible, while protecting them from anything that might see them hurt.

His methods, though, often see him unintentionally causing mass carnage in the pursuit of a noble objective.

When the Panesar fortune was stolen, Ravi couldn’t bear the thought of disappointing his daughter by cancelling her sweet 16th, and so he approached the ever-dangerous Nicola Mitchell (Laura Doddington) for a contact within the drug trade to make some quick cash.

What ultimately unfurled was a sprawling, predatory narcotic enterprise that left a trail of destruction in its wake, with a vulnerable Kojo Asare (Dayo Koleosho) cuckoo’d, Harry Mitchell (Elijah Holloway) locked up and tortured, leaving him with an all-consuming addiction, the gruesome death of Tobias ‘Okie’ Okyere (Aayan Ibikunle Shoderu) and, ultimately, Ravi having to turn informant to escape prison.

Nicola and Harry were unwilling to let Ravi get off with his various crimes, and enacted a vicious revenge plan that saw him drugged, his hallucinations of evil dad Nish Panesar (Navin Chowdhry) causing him to savagely beat Nugget, resulting in his son being diagnosed with epilepsy.

From there, Ravi’s already fragile mental health began to unravel at a terrifying pace.

‘It’s been a privilege to be trusted with something that holds a great responsibility to tell the story in a way that needs to be fully committed,’ Aaron explained while supporting Mind and the Ricky Hatton Foundation at the Brunswick Art Gallery for Men’s Mental Health Week.

‘I was aware heading into the story that I need to give myself to it in order to do it justice and tell someone’s story.

‘Look, pressure is a privilege, right? So is hard work. So I loved every bit of it.’

Despite Priya’s best attempts to access psychiatric help for him, things reached a terrifying climax that saw Ravi consider taking his own life, resulting in his sectioning and a diagnosis of complex-PTSD.

While he made an incredibly brief return to explain to Priya that he’d been released from the mental health facility and intended to continue his healing journey alone, Ravi has been absent ever since.

In his absence, Priya has embarked on a dangerous affair with the King of dangerous affairs himself: Max Branning (Jake Wood), but can Aaron ever see Ravi and Priya fixing things and getting back together?

‘That seems to be what the fans want, so yeah, maybe something along those lines,’ he teased.

On his approach to the storylines bestowed upon his character, Aaron admitted: ‘I’m open to anything.’

‘I think what it does so well and with the actors and the characters within it is we go through all these nose dives into this story and pull out and we go to another story.

‘So as an actor, you have to just be ready to be pulled in any direction.

‘To be honest, I’ve been very fortunate to play such an array of different stories and different tones and colours and emotions. And I feel like having done four years, whatever they throw at me – I will go with it.’