Rishi Sharma

Rishi Sharma was the ex-husband of Georgia and Manpreet Sharma, the father of Jai, Nikhil, and Priya Sharma and grandfather of Mia, Archie, Molly, Amba, and Eliza.
==Biography==
===2011-2018: Arrival in Emmerdale===
In November 2011, Rishi and his wife along with their daughter Priya arrive in the village to meet his son Jai's fiancée, Charity Tate, approving of her. He spends a few weeks with Jai and becomes critical about the factory.
He attends Jai and Charity's wedding with his wife Georgia in January 2012. Rishi and Georgia return to see their granddaughter, Molly in October. Rishi's and Georgia's marriage dissolves and he moves in with Jai. He gets along with Jai's now-wife Charity and in July 2012 he helps her scam the Kings in order to get a share in their haulage business. 
When Jai gets Rachel Breckle pregnant and she gives birth to his son, Archie. When Rishi finds out about this he disapproves but agrees to keep it from Charity. In August 2013, He saves Jai's marriage with Charity by saying that the baby was his when she became convinced Jai was the father. But in November when Rishi suffers a heart attack, he reveals to Charity that Archie is Jai's, causing the breakdown of Jai and Charity's marriage.
In May 2014, Rishi's daughter Priya gives birth to Rishi's third grandchild, Amba, who was born seven weeks premature. Rishi learns that Jai was threatening Rachel during his custody battle and becomes ashamed of his actions. He helps Kirin Kotecha and Belle Dingle launch their cordial and plans for the launch party in September. While there, he tells Jai to go home after he knocks over Vanessa Woodfield, while under the influence of drugs. With Priya's help, he tries to help save the business, as many clients were turned off due to Jai's actions. Jai is then taken to hospital and Rishi is accused of sexism when he does not think Priya is capable of running the business, instead employing Nikhil. He helps Jai get over his addiction to cocaine.
In March 2016, Rishi has a fourth grandchild when Megan Macey gives birth to Jai's daughter Eliza.
In March 2018, Rishi walks in on Priya as she snaps at Amba and Eliza, much to the distress of the former. On the following day, Rishi attends Eliza's 2nd birthday party and is present when Jai finds bruises on her legs, proceeding to take her to hospital. When initial tests prove inconclusive, Rishi greatly offends Priya when he privately suggests that she may have inflicted them. Priya does, however, reveal her prior outburst to Jai and Megan, becoming under suspicion of child abuse. Priya's innocence is ultimately proved when Eliza's bruises are determined to be the result of epilepsy medication.
===2018-2021: Relationship with Manpreet Jutla===
In July 2018, Rishi took a fancy towards the new doctor, Dr Manpreet Jutla at the Abbott Lane Surgery when he arrived for his health check. They eventually start dating but Rishi starts getting insecure. However, Manpreet assures him she loves his larger than life personality.
In January 2019, Manpreet considered moving closer to the village in order to be closer to work and Jai and Priya tried to get Rishi to ask her to move in with them, a plan which eventually played off. In February, Jai started getting suspicious of her and soon discovered she had a spending addiction. When Manpreet stole from the factory accounts the following week she finally had to come clean to Rishi. However, Jai and Priya worried about her taking advantage of Rishi's big heart and tried to warn him. In March 2019, Rishi reveals that he and Manpreet got married in Las Vegas. 
In July 2019, desperate to help Manpreet with her mounting debts, Rishi let the factory pay the prize when he entered a deal with the ruthless Kim Tate, taking a secret loan from her. However, the family really hit rock bottom when on 1st August 2019, a fire started at the factory leading them to great financial issues and forcing Rishi to come clean to his children about his deal with Kim. With the dodgy alarm turned off by Rishi, the insurance company were reluctant to give them any sort of pay-out after finding out Rishi had turned of the defective fire alarm before the fire. With no way out, Jai was forced to sell to Kim, giving her a 49.5% share while Rishi and Priya gave up their shares in the business.
Rishi gets a shock in September 2020 as Manpreet's sister, Meena, turns up, Rishi feels put out by Manpreet as she never told him about her sister. Rishi spends the next few months encouraging the sisters to put their differences behind them and reconcile.
Rishi gets a further shock in January 2021 when new vicar Charles Anderson reveals that many years ago Manpreet had almost married him under a fake identity "Saira", the secrets over the past few months drives a wedge between Rishi and Manpreet. In October 2021 Manpreet tells Rishi she no longer loves him and their marriage ends, Rishi initially holds a grudge against Charles however he soon realises Charles is not to blame.
===2021-2023: Divorce from Manpreet and death===
In July 2022, Rishi receives his decree absolute and heads to PampaManda to proudly announce his windfall which impresses new employee Sandra Flaherty. When Rishi's online date fails to show up, he has a drink with Sandra before bringing her home to Holdgate Farm. The next morning Sandra tells Rishi she feels as if he is embarrassed by her as he tries to hide her from his family, she also tells him thanks to their night of drinking she fell off the wagon, in an apology Rishi gives Sandra £500 to help with her sobriety.
Jai discovers that Rishi is not named on his birth certificate. Rishi confirms he's not Jai's biological father but says he doesn't know who is. Jai refuses to believe that Rishi doesn't know. When Georgia turns up it's finally revealed that Rishi's younger brother is his father and that Rishi's mum made him promise never to reveal this fact.
Rishi died on his adoptive son's wedding day collapsing at the bottom of his stairs. He's discovered by Jai the following day, cradling Rishi in his lap.
==Residences==
Address 	Duration
Marital home 	Until 17th November 2011
Holdgate Farm	17th November 2011 to 30th November 2011
Marital home 	30th November 2011 to 4th June 2012
Holdgate Farm	4th June 2012 to 27th July 2023
==Quotes==
"It's been far to long" - first line, spoken to Nikhil Sharma.
---
"I'm not wearing a hairnet - it's not a good look for me!" - to Jai Sharma when discussing the worker shortage at the factory.
---
"Silly old fool. Still looking smart, right?" - final line, spoken by Bhasker Patel as Rishi.
==See also==
*Full list of appearances
Category:Emmerdale characters
Category:2011 debuts
Category:Sharma family
Category:Jutla family
Category:Residents of Holdgate Farm
Category:Sharma & Sharma employees
Category:Businessmen
Category:Office Assistants
Category:1972 marriages
Category:2019 marriages
Category:2023 departures
Category:2023 deaths