Ex-EastEnder blasts soap's portrayal of Asian characters

Verma, who played Sanjay Kapoor for five years, slammed the new Masood characters as a "two-dimensional, ill-conceived Asian family" with "stupid clothes and stupid accents".

The actor starred as market trader Sanjay, who was married to Gita - played by Shobu Kapoor - between 1993 and 1998.

Critical: Deepak Verma says the new Masood characters are a "two-dimensional, ill-conceived Asian family"

Verma said, in contrast to his time on the BBC1 soap, the show is now moving backwards.

He said: "My character and Shobu's character were the first real characters on the show that were proper (Asian) people. We didn't have accents. I just acted like a Hackney boy, like a barrow boy."

He added: "We did that 15 years ago. We need to move forwards. It's going backwards."

He said the BBC1 programme should look to ITV soap Coronation Street for how to depict Asian characters.

"Jimmi Harkishin (who plays Dev Alahan) is brilliant. That's what it should be like. He's just a dodgy womanising sleazebag. He's Indian but that's got nothing to do with it. He's just a brilliant actor. That's where it should be going. I think Coronation Street has done better than EastEnders recently."

Verma also said some actors were too "lazy and scared" to question the way their characters are represented.

"I used to go up to the producers and say 'This is a load of sh*t. I ain't doing it. Change it' and offered an alternative.

"They may not have gone completely with it, but they went some way with it. But actors are scared. They've got to pay mortgages and they've got kids to feed. They're not going to go up to people and say 'I'm not doing an Indian accent'."

He said on one occasion during his stint in the Square, he was asked to listen to sitar music with a shrine to Ganesh in the corner.

"I love Ganesh, me as me, yes, I respect it. But the character, no. I took it and put it out of the set and said 'This is what I'm going to do. I'm not doing that. That's the way it is'."

He added the producers did not "mean anything by it" but were just acting out of ignorance.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "It's a shame Deepak feels that way but that's clearly his very personal opinion.

"The Masood family have proved to be hugely popular with EastEnders viewers - Nitin (Ganatra) and Nina (Wadia) won 'best on-screen partnership' and Nina won 'best comedy performer' at this year's British Soap Awards - which is a real testament to how successfully the Masoods have established themselves in Walford."