Devendra "Dev" Alahan is a
fictional characterA character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr through its Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its...
in the UK television
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
,
Coronation StreetCoronation Street is an award-winning prime time soap opera set and produced in Manchester created by Tony Warren...
. Portrayed by
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Jimmi HarkishinJames "Jimmi" Harkishin is an actor best known for his role as shop owner Dev Alahan in Coronation Street. He was born to an Indian father and Italian mother. He also featured in the film East is East and also Bhaji on the Beach...
, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 10 November 1999. He is the owner of a chain of seven shops in the Manchester area and bought the shop on the street from his uncle Ravi after he returned to India.
Amy, a former girlfriend, followed Dev to Weatherfield, claiming he had promised to marry her.
Devendra "Dev" Alahan is a
fictional characterA character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr through its Latin transcription character, the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its...
in the UK television
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
soap operaA soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name "soap opera" stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble,...
,
Coronation StreetCoronation Street is an award-winning prime time soap opera set and produced in Manchester created by Tony Warren...
. Portrayed by
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
Jimmi HarkishinJames "Jimmi" Harkishin is an actor best known for his role as shop owner Dev Alahan in Coronation Street. He was born to an Indian father and Italian mother. He also featured in the film East is East and also Bhaji on the Beach...
, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 10 November 1999. He is the owner of a chain of seven shops in the Manchester area and bought the shop on the street from his uncle Ravi after he returned to India.
Early years
Amy, a former girlfriend, followed Dev to Weatherfield, claiming he had promised to marry her. He denied this, claiming she was a mad woman, so she claimed she was expecting his child and pretended to attempt suicide. Upon returning to the
Rovers Return InnThe Rovers Return Inn is a fictional public house on the long running British television soap, Coronation Street.The Rovers Return occupies the corner of Coronation Street and Rosamund Street. Since the first episode it has been the principal setting in the show and many of its most memorable...
with bandaged wrists, Dev exposed her lies by ripping off the bandages, revealing no cuts.
Sometime later, Dev almost married barmaid Geena Gregory, but her mother was unhappy about this situation. She paid
Karen McDonaldKaren McDonald is a fictional character on the long-running British soap opera, Coronation Street. She was played by Suranne Jones.Karen was the feisty and volatile wife of Steve McDonald.-Introduction:...
to set him up and they were caught together in the flat. Although she forgave him on that occasion, Geena and Dev later split and she got together with
Joe CarterJoseph Christopher Carter is a former right fielder in Major League Baseball who played from to , most famous for hitting a walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series, with the Toronto Blue Jays trailing 6–5 to the Philadelphia Phillies, just two outs away from a seventh...
.
Romance with Sunita
Dev saved shopworker Sunita Parekh from an arranged marriage in
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
and gave her a safe haven in the flat above the shop. Sunita developed feelings for Dev but he just saw her as a friend, though they later became involved.
His other girlfriends included the sister of Natalie Horrocks (landlady of the Rover's Return), and
Tracy BarlowTracy Lynette Barlow is a fictional character on the British television soap opera Coronation Street....
, who wrecked his flat after discovering he had no intention of marrying her. He also slept with
Deirdre BarlowDeirdre Anne Barlow is a long-standing fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Anne Kirkbride, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode that was aired on 20 November 1972...
, who he employed at the shop.
The start of Maya's madness
Dev later met solicitor
Maya SharmaMaya Sharma is a fictional character on the soap opera Coronation Street. She was played by Sasha Behar.- Introduction :Corrie's psycho Mad Maya started out as a lawyer. Originally, she advised Roy and Hayley Cropper about the matters of Amy Barlow...
, when on the rebound from Sunita, who chose barman Ciaran McCarthy over him. He set up home with Maya, but when Sunita became seriously ill, Maya got jealous of the amount of time he spent with Sunita and forced Dev to choose between them. Dev chose Sunita, enraging Maya, and she smashed up the flat and set Sunita up with an illegal immigration scam, and she was arrested at her wedding to Dev. Sunita was jailed but released when a taxi driver came forward with information that implicated Maya.
Maya was released on bail, and with murder in mind she tied up Sunita and one by one set fire to each of Dev's shops. When Dev arrived, she knocked him unconscious, and left them to die in the fire, but Ciaran McCarthy and
Charlie StubbsCharles "Charlie" Stubbs is a fictional character in the British television soap opera Coronation Street on ITV. He arrived in November 2003 and stayed until he was brutally murdered in January 2007. Charlie was portrayed by Bill Ward.-Overview:...
saved them.
Marital trouble and parenthood
Dev's marriage to Sunita flowed smoothly for a while, and the couple were overjoyed to discover they were having twins, which meant Dev sold his share of Streetcars to
Lloyd MullaneyLloyd Mullaney, is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Craig Charles, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 20 June 2005...
to buy a house for his expanding family.
However during 2005, Sunita took in
Amber KaliraiAmber Kalirai is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actress Nikki Patel, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 9 November 2005...
, daughter of one of his employees who was ill in hospital. Dev was uncomfortable with Amber in the flat, and Sunita discovered that Dev was Amber's father. He and her mother had had an affair years ago. However, Amber was just the tip of the iceberg... Dev has several daughters by women he has employed. Sunita also discovered that Dev was a grandfather too.
Sunita was devastated by the secret and that Dev was happy having so little contact with his daughters and promptly left him. She allowed him to be present when she gave birth to their twins, Asha and Aadi. While Dev was overjoyed (especially as Aadi was his first son), Sunita was unable to forgive him. Eventually, in January 2006, Sunita and the twins left Dev for good, moving into the house Dev bought for them. Dev does see the twins occasionally.
Settling down
The following February, Amber (who now knew the truth about her parentage) came to stay with Dev as her mother was moving to
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
with her new boyfriend but Amber wanted to stay in Weatherfield. At first, Dev refused to allow her to live with him, bitter about the part Amber played in his marriage breakdown, but eventually he thawed and allowed her to move in.
In July 2006, Dev learned that Sunita was seeing another man and he feared that it would alter his relationship with the twins.
On New Year's Eve 2007, Dev took over from Bob as best man for
Vernon TomlinVernon Tomlin is a fictional character of the ITV1 soap opera Coronation Street, portrayed by Ian Reddington.-Character background:A musician in a pub and club band , he dated Liz McDonald until she dumped him after finding out he made a pass at singer and barmaid Michelle Connor...
at his wedding to
Liz McDonaldElizabeth "Liz" Jayne McDonald is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street...
and was later hit by
Jim McDonaldJames "Jim" McDonald is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Charles Lawson, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 27 October 1989...
, in the process of Jim beating Vernon.
In Summer 2008, Dev was upset after conversations with
Tony GordonAnthony "Tony" Gordon is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Gray O'Brien, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 16 September 2007.-Background:...
and
Norris ColeNorris Benjamin Cole is a fictional character in the UK television ITV soap opera, Coronation Street. Portrayed by actor Malcolm Hebden, the character first appeared onscreen during the episode airing on 11 March 1994 and remained until his departure in 1997, only to return in 1999 and continues...
made him realise he is not really successful and just a simple man running a chain of shops. To compensate, he quickly got a membership to a new golf club to make himself feel better.
Mother/daughter love triangle
In July 2008, Dev went for a round of golf with Vernon Tomlin and by chance, they struck up a conversation with Prem Mandal, who gave Vernon some golf pointers. The trio later had a drink together at the golf club. After Prem left, Dev told Vernon that Prem is a very successful businessman who runs his own cleaning business.
Dev then entered into an affair with Prem's wife, Nina Mandal, (an ex-
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the...
star whom Alahan once had a crush on), after going on a date with their friend, Lisa.]
In August 2008, Dev bought a flat in the newly-finished Victoria Court. Dev became increasingly dissatisfied with his affair with Nina when he realised that he was not the first man she had cheated on Prem with. Nina blackmailed Dev by threatening to tell Prem if he tried to end the affair but Dev met their daughter and found himself torn between
TaraTara Mandal, is a fictional character on the British soap opera Coronation Street portrayed by Ayesha Dharker.-Creation:Her creation and casting were first announced on 22 August 2008, one month after Coronation Street was lambasted in a report by chairman of the Equality and Human Rights...
and Nina, Nina did not approve of Dev's attraction to Tara. Dev and Tara went on several dates despite Nina's disapproval and she threatened Dev that she would tell Prem about their affair. So Dev, sick of Nina's threats, told Prem himself, who wanted nothing more to do with Dev.
Unfortunately Tara took quite a shine to Dev and while he tried to discourage her, she interpreted his actions as honourable. Eventually Dev visited Prem again and asked for his permission to date Tara but also Prem's promise that he wouldn't tell Tara about Dev's affair with Nina. Dev asked this for Tara's sake and Prem agreed. Unfortunately Tara told Dev Nina had slept with her ex-boyfriend, but told Tara that she was paranoid - her boyfriend wasn't really cheating on her.
On 21 November 2008, he bought Jerry's Takeaway from
Jerry MortonJerome "Jerry" Morton, played by Michael Starke, is a fictional character on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street. He was introduced in March 2007...
and renamed it "Prima Doner". Amber was so angry when she discovered what her dad had done - taken away her boyfriend's home and livelihood - that she told Tara about Dev's affair with Nina. This caused her and Dev to split up briefly but they reconciled, with some help from Amber.
In April 2009, barmaid Poppy Morales saw Dev and Tara's family friend Lisa Dalton together the night Tara dumped him, following an argument about her art gallery, and she left. However, Poppy told Tara about Dev and Lisa's one night stand. Tara confronted Lisa about her betrayal and told her not to visit either her or Dev again. When she asked Dev what he had done the night she left, he told her he stayed in, watching television so Tara plotted revenge for Dev's betrayal. As part of this, she convinced Dev to let him be photographed naked.
On May 11, 2009, in front of a huge crowd in the street for an unveiling on urban degradation, Dev proposed to Tara. However, she rejected him before unveiling a huge photo of him naked with the words
LIAR printed on it. Dev was humiliated and Tara left soon after.
External links