Sanjeev Bhaskar has shared poignant comments about grief after emotional scenes in the new BBC series The Split Up. The actor, who plays Dhruv Kishan in the drama, spoke about the "weight" of carrying grief as the characters come to terms with the death of the family matriarch.
The Split Up: A Manchester Family Law Drama
The BBC drama, a spin-off from Nicola Walker's The Split, centres on a British South Asian family law practice, The Kishans, based in Manchester. The six-part series has been teased by the BBC as featuring "the high-stakes world of Manchester's divorce law circuit, where one family of lawyers, the Kishans, reigns supreme".
The series follows Ritu Arya as Aria Kishan, an ambitious lawyer following in the footsteps of her father Dhruv, ready to take over as head of the firm. While she focuses on professional battles, she and her two siblings are also coming to terms with the death of her mother, Raina.
Cast on Grief and Emotional Scenes
Ahead of the series airing, the Unforgotten star spoke about the grief threaded throughout the show. He said: "Speaking generally, grief is a weird thing and affects people differently. Mostly it's like a weight, and you get on with your lives but there's a weight you're carrying."
He added that he found some scenes between the onscreen siblings "really moving", while co-star Aysha Kala shared: "We never had a conversation about the grief aspect of it. It's so present in the script, but I think that helped in a way because, as you said, we're dealing with it in our own way and then when we get together, you feel that heaviness in us."
Aysha Kala on a Tearful Moment On Set
Aysha Kala, who plays Aria's sister Maya, also revealed a moment where the cast were left in tears. She recalled a time when Izzy Khan, the young woman who plays her daughter in the show, was nervous before a performance at the Chunni engagement ceremony.
Aysha said: "When Izzy did her dance at the Chunni, she had to do that right at the end of the day, and that's like hell when you know you've got to do this thing all day, she was nervous, and we all stood around and watched her, and collectively there were just tears coming from everyone."
She added: "Collectively we all ran in and gave her a massive huge, and it was genuinely like everyone was supporting everybody all the time. We all wanted each other to do the best that we could do."
Working with Younger Actors
Aysha also spoke about working with her onscreen children in a cast Q&A, praising Izzy Khan and Jacob Krishna, who play Maya's children Charvi and Danny. She said: "I also had the pleasure of working with two incredible younger actors - Izzy Khan and Jacob Krishna who play Maya's children, Charvi and Danny. I mean, Izzy will kill me if I call her a child because she keeps telling me she's not a child! I will cry if I talk about Izzy dancing because she is phenomenal."
She continued: "I don't think there was a dry eye in the house when she danced at the Chunni. She got up onto the dance floor and none of us knew what to expect because she's, you know, a 19-year-old girl. She's incredibly confident, and she carries herself beautifully. She is really, really special, and I think she's going to do amazing things. I'm like her mum in real life because I can't talk about her without crying!"
The Split Up is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
