Ace Bhatti

Ace Bhatti
Born	Ahsen Rafiq Bhatti (1969-09-13) 13 September 1969 Nottingham, England
Years active	1984-present

Ahsen Rafiq Bhatti (born 13 September 1969), known professionally as Ahsen Bhatti until 2008 and as Ace Bhatti thereafter, is a British actor who trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He has starred in numerous television series, including New Street Law, Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee, The Sarah Jane Adventures as Haresh Chandra and in EastEnders playing villain Yusef Khan (2010–11).

Career

Bhatti began acting at age fourteen starring in the children series Dramarama, however it wasn't until the nineties until he furthered his career, for which he appeared in the British soap opera Family Pride, Band of Gold, Holding On, and most notably as Dr Rajesh Rajah in Cardiac Arrest, among many other television roles during this time. In 2002 Bhatti made a brief appearance in Bend It Like Beckham, played the central character Dave in BBC Three's dark comedy Grease Monkeys (2003), and played flashy Ash Aslan in 2006's New Street Law. In 2007 he took on a minor role for two episodes in the first series of Secret Diary of a Call Girl as Ashok, a regular client of the main character, Belle. He reappeared in 2010 in the same role. In 2008 Bhatti appeared as a supporting character in the second series of The Sarah Jane Adventures, and reprised his role for the third series in 2009, the fourth series in 2010 and in the fifth series in 2011. Although credited in his early career by his birth name Ahsen Bhatti, Bhatti changed his professional name to Ace Bhatti (Ace is a childhood nickname). In 2011 he played Commander Khokar in the BBC2 series The Shadow Line.

In April 2013, Ace Bhatti became a patron of Theatre Royal Wakefield.

In 2018, it was announced that Bhatti will play Freddie Mercury's father Bomi Bulsara in the upcoming biopic called Bohemian Rhapsody, to be released on November 2, 2018.

EastEnders

In 2010, Bhatti was cast as Yusef Khan, the father of already established character Afia Masood (Meryl Fernandes). Bhatti was already known to EastEnders executive producer Bryan Kirkwood when he auditioned for the part, as Kirkwood and Bhatti worked on Coronation Street at the same time. Bhatti was the only actor who auditioned for the part of Yusef. In fact, Wadia recommended Bhatti to Kirkwood to play Yusef, as she "thought that he definitely had the quality that Yusef would need—which is a very ambiguous but charming quality!" Bhatti explained to Digital Spy that the EastEnders cast are very welcoming. He explained: "They're so welcoming. There's a lot of joking about. I'm having a great time at EastEnders - it's a real privilege to be here. I've known Nitin and Nina Wadia, who plays Zainab, for a very long time and we've always got on very well. Nitin and I play tense scenes together so it's nice that we can have a laugh afterwards." He featured in a Domestic violence storyline in late 2011 with co-star Nina Wadia who plays Yusef's wife Zainab. Yusef starts to abuse Zainab both physically and mentally. He forbids Zainab to leave the house and later starts using her son, Kamil, to control her. Wadia explains that she wants the storyline to have a positive impact against real-life violence. She told BBC News :"I think the idea behind showing a strong woman like Zainab changing like this is to show that it can happen to even the strongest of women. They can change and they can be manipulated - especially if they're isolated from their friends and family. The manipulator can take advantage, so it's to prove that it can even happen to people like her. To be honest, if even one woman rings that Action Line at the end of the show and there's some difference made to her life, I'll feel like we've done our job," she continued. "It is a serious issue and I'm glad it's being highlighted. I hope that it wakes anyone up - not just women, I know that there are abused men out there as well. So if it gives anyone the strength to leave a relationship like that, we'll have done our job." The scenes where Yusef refused to let Zainab see Kamil pulled in 8.69m viewers at 7.30pm. BBC Three's repeat of the episode later secured 994k viewers at 10pm.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Dramarama	Eddie
1995	Treasure of the Peacock's Eye	Indian Lieutenant
1995	Brothers in Trouble	Irshad
	Ghostbusters of East Finchley	DI Cunliffe
1997	Sixth Happiness	Cyrus
1998	Verdict	Sanjay Mehta Q.C.
1999	Cleopatra	Sceptical Citizen
	Grafters	Tom
	Last Christmas	Doctor
2000	Peak Practice	Specialist
	Harbour Lights	Ramesh
	Silent Witness	DCI Ranjeet Naval
2001	Love or Money	Ali
2002	Bend It Like Beckham	Nairobi Grandson
2003	Emmerdale	Bobby Khan
2004	The Deputy	Nickhall Gangwani
	The Secret of Year Six	Abdul
2005	Ultimate Force	Handsome
	Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee	Deepak
2006	Bradford Riots	Faisal
	Goldplated	Haq
2007	Frankenstein	Dr. Dhillon
2009	New Tricks	Geeten Mistry
	Coming Up	Shahid
	Wish 143	Consultant
2010	My Lad	Aziz
	It's a Wonderful Afterlife	Tej
	Break Clause	Kadir
2013	The Last Witch	Doctor
2014	Amar Akbar & Tony	Doc
2018	Bohemian Rhapsody	Bomi Bulsara

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Family Pride	Suresh
1994–95	Cardiac Arrest	Dr. Rajesh Rajah
1995–96	Band of Gold	Dez	4 episodes
1997–08	The Bill	Sunil Davdra	4 episodes
1997	Holding On	Zahid
2000	Urban Gothic	Jim Takeshi
2001	NCS: Manhunt	DC Johnny Khan
	Dalziel and Pascoe	Ravi Ghataura
2002	NCS: Manhunt	DC Johnny Khan
2002–05	Holby City	Andy Fishman
2003	The Second Coming	Peter Gupta
2003–04	Grease Monkeys	Dave Dhillon	20 episodes
2004	Bodies	Rajesh Rajah
2005	Cold Blood	Ajay Roychowdury
2005–06	Coronation Street	Jayesh Parekh
2006	Blue Murder	Saadiq Aziz
2006–07	Cold Blood 2	Ajay Roychowdury
2006–07	New Street Law	Ash Aslan	10 episodes
2007	Casualty	Andy Fishman
2007–08	Cold Blood	DC Ajay Roychowdury
2007–08	Secret Diary of a Call Girl	Ashok	3 episodes
2008	Kiss of Death	Miles Trueman
2008–11	The Sarah Jane Adventures	Haresh Chandra	24 episodes
2009	Casualty	Rafiq
	The Fixer	Supari
	Spooks	Amish Mani
2010–11	EastEnders	Yusef Khan	94 episodes
2011	The Shadow Line	Commander Khokar	4 episodes
2012	Midsomer Murders	Harry Dutta	1 episode
2014	Silent Witness	Mousa Rashid	2 episodes
	Silk	Dani Kakwani	2 episodes
	From There to Here	DI Graves	2 episodes
	In the Club	Vinay	1 episode
	Lewis	Rizwan Nooran	Episode: "Entry Wounds"
2015	Father Brown	Syrus	Episode: "The Lair of the Libertines"
	Jekyll and Hyde	Dr. Vishal Najaran	3 episodes
2016	Shetland	Calvin Sarwar	3 episodes
	Beowulf	Harken	4 episodes
	DCI Banks	Malik Nadir	4 episodes
2017	Three Girls	Nazir Afzal	2 episodes

External links

• Ace Bhatti at IMDb
• Ace Bhatti Interview with Asiana Mag
• Ace Bhatti Interview with LeftLion Magazine