- Maya Sharma
-
Maya Sharma Coronation Street character Portrayed by Sasha Behar Duration 2003–04 First appearance 5 August 2003 Last appearance 24 November 2004 Classification Former; regular Profile Occupation Lawyer Family Romances Dev Alahan Maya Sharma is a fictional character on the soap opera Coronation Street. She was played by Sasha Behar. She appears between 2003 and 2004.
Contents
Creation and development
Controversy
In 2004, ITV received complaints because of a scene in which viewers saw Maya threaten Sunita with a statue of Hindu god Lord Ganesh.
ITV has apologised for the scene, But Hindu leaders rejected the apology. Ramesh Kallidai, secretary of the Hindu Forum of Britain, said: "The apology is not unconditional, it makes a justification for the behaviour. This is not acceptable to us." The scene was part of a long-running storyline in the ITV1 soap. It showed Maya, played by Sasha Behar, threatening Sunita (Shobna Gulati), saying her husband would come home to find her "beaten to death by Ganesh", the God of good fortune.[1]
Reception
Radio Times included Maya on their feature profiling bunny boilers.[2] Opining on her fixation with Dev they stated: "While we might question the object of Maya's fixation - Dev, for heaven's sake? - there's no denying her single-mindedness."[2] They also commented on her career status adding: "As ever in soap, the middle classes are trouble - Maya was a solicitor."[2]
Storylines
2003–04
Corrie's psycho, dubbed "Mad Maya", starts out as a lawyer. Originally, she advises Roy (David Neilson) and Hayley Cropper (Julie Hesmondhalgh) about the matters regarding the legal custody of infant Amy Barlow. She falls for shopkeeper Dev Alahan (Jimmi Harkishin), who seems to take an immediate liking to her.
Despite striking up a friendship with Frankie Baldwin (Debra Stephenson), very quickly it seems there is something wrong with this character, as she begins stealing vases and then kidnaps Monica, Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall)'s pet dog. Then she leaves a restaurant without paying and drives Dev around a country road extremely fast threatening not to stop the car unless he proposes to her. At her engagement party to Dev, Tyrone tries to ruin the event by telling everyone that she killed his dog and he compares her to Cruella Devil, but she resists this. Dev rekindled his love for ex-girlfriend Sunita Parekh (Shobna Gulati) when he discovers she has a brain tumour. Even Maya has pity, and then decides to capitalise this by playing the caring friend and telling Sunita she might be putting pressure on Dev. When Dev announces his love for Sunita, Maya trashes his shop and his flat. Sunita recovers and Dev dumps Maya and starts dating Sunita again.
At Dev and Sunita's engagement party, Maya wrecks Sunita's dress by spilling urine on it. Then, she marries several illegal immigrants with Sunita's birth certificate. When it comes to Dev and Sunita's wedding, they are both arrested for illegal marriage. When Dev manages to get a taxi driver who transported her to one of the illegal weddings to convince the police that it was Maya behind these plans, she is thrown in jail, but later released on bail. She spends her bail time running around Manchester and burning down Dev's shops.
She then enters Dev's flat and takes Sunita hostage and phones Dev. Soon Dev arrives but Maya has gone and eft a message in lipstick on the table. He is ordered to the corner shop on Coronation Street. This is his last property that has not been destroyed. When he arrives and sees a bound and gagged Sunita he proceeds to tell her that everything would be ok but then Maya knocks him out and ties him up too. When he wakes up they talk about how he dumped her and how upset she was. Later a police man comes up at the door. Dev screams to attract attention but then Maya gags him to stop his cries for help. She tells the police that she is Sunita and while she does this Dev gets a knife and cuts his legs free.
When Maya returns she turns the gas on the stove on and leaves the kitchen, telling Dev that if he believes in reincarnation that maybe next time he would come back as something better and starts a fire in the shop below. She leaves them tied up inside a locked room. Soon Jamie Baldwin (Rupert Hill) and Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) notice a fire in the shop and Rita Sullivan (Barbara Knox) calls the fire brigade. Dev breaks the window with the curtain rail and this attracts the attention of the Street's residents below. Two of the residents, Ciaran McCarthy (Keith Duffy) and Charlie Stubbs (Bill Ward) come to the rescue. Dev is released by Ciaran and carried down on his shoulder just before the corner shop explodes dramatically. Maya feels quite shocked when Dev is rescued. The residents are in shock to see Dev bound and gagged and had no idea what was going on. Sunita is saved by Charlie and appears shortly afterwards. Maya is completely astonished at this point. She is watching from her car at the other end of the street and then tries to run Dev down in the street in a fit of rage, but misses after Charlie pulls Dev out of the way. She crashes into the viaduct and when she crashes the residents think the worst was over. However, then she arises covered in blood and starts up her car. Suddenly, a truck crashes into the back of her car as she reversed it back out.
Maya survives and is sent to the same hospital as Sunita. When Sunita learns this she leaves the hospital immediately. Sunita's friend Shelley Unwin (Sally Lindsay) mentions that Maya is on life support and her hospital room is under police guard. After coming out of intensive care, Maya is sent to jail to await her trial. Little is now known about Maya. She was last mentioned when Leanne Battersby offered Dev a share of her restaurant business in 2007 as Maya had tried to tempt Leanne into taking out a lawsuit against Dev for unfair dismissal from the Corner Shop at the beginning of her twisted campaign of revenge.
References
- ^ Plunkett, John (3 December 2004). "Hindus protest over Coronation St fight scene". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/dec/03/broadcasting.ITV.
- ^ a b c McLean, Gareth (29 November 2009). "Soapland's top bunny-boilers". Radio Times. (BBC Magazines). http://www.radiotimes.com/blogs/810-soaps-bunny-boilers/. Retrieved 1 January 2011.
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