ZEEDAN LEARNS THE TRUTH

Corrie’s Zeedan is driven wild by his wife’s infidelity, says actor Qasim Akhtar. But there’s more pain to come

Corrie’s Zeedan Nazir has endured some tough times, but his wife Rana has been there for him, especially lately, as she’s helped him come to terms with the murder of his friend Luke Britton.

So it’s not surprising that Zeedan is left completely shattered this week when Rana confesses that she’s been having an affair and packs her bags.

‘When Rana came into his life, Zeedan had lost his dad and was at an all-time low,’ says Qasim Akhtar, who plays the young chef. ‘She makes him happy, they got married and were about to set up a catering business together. He had no suspicions, so the revelation totally shocks him.’

Reeling from her betrayal, Zeedan rifles through Rana’s belongings and finds a note on Bistro notepaper which leads him to wrongly accuse his boss, Robert, of being Rana’s lover.

Zeedan gets into a scuffle with Robert, who explains he’s innocent, and Zeedan in despair drinks alcohol for the first time, which is against his Muslim faith. ‘He goes down the wrong path like a lot of people would in his shoes,’ says Qasim.

So how will Zeedan react when he finds out not only that Rana has been seeing a woman, but it’s his friend Kate Connor? ‘Finding out it’s a woman would be another blow,’ says Qasim. ‘Knowing it’s Kate would amount to pure betrayal, humiliation and embarrassment.’

Rana will face a backlash from their families. ‘This will be one of the times we explore cultural references in terms of the way Rana’s behaviour is dealt with in a Muslim family,’ Qasim says.

Zeedan is, of course, a member of Corrie’s first Muslim family. ‘It’s been an honour to bring culture and religion and show people what we’re

about,’ admits Qasim, a Muslim raised in Manchester, whose mum is a huge Corrie fan. ‘When I told her I’d got the job she cried her eyes out!’

She was less keen on Qasim’s six years in Channel 4’s cult comedydrama Shameless, which depicted life on a council estate. ‘That was too rude, but, to my mum, when I got the Corrie part I’d made it,’ he laughs.

It was certainly a huge achievement as Qasim had never planned to become an actor. When he was 12, a casting director came to his school

looking for young Asian boys for a movie called Mischief Night.

‘I got the part, and the producers also produced Shameless. That’s how I got my foot in the door, which was a dream, because Shameless was an iconic show.’

In 2014, Qasim joined Coronation Street. ‘I’m really enjoying it, and it’s good to get my teeth into big storylines,’ he says. ‘I feel like I’m just climbing and climbing, so who knows where life will take me.’