What happened to Vikram Desai in Coronation Street?

PLENTY of troublemakers have come and gone from the cobbles over the decades.

Regular Coronation Street viewers may remember Vikram Desai for his scheming which led him straight out of Weatherfield.

Who was Vikram Desai and what happened to him in Coronation Street?

The son of Ravi Desai and a university dropout, Vikram first appeared in the ITV soap ahead of his 20th birthday in February, 1999.

At the time, his father had just taken over the Corner Shop and Vikram was made to help his sister Nita run the store.

That same year, Vikram was promoted to manager as Nita defected to Freshco.

However, Vik’s mind was often too preoccupied with his love life and business soon grew tiresome for him.

One year after his arrival in the cobbles, Vikram decided it was time for him to leave the family shop and, tired of being everybody’s lackey, he set up Street Cars with good pal Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson).

While the taxi firm eventually thrived and remains a staple in Coronation Street, both Vik and Steve had to borrow money.

Steve borrowed from Jez Quigley as Vikram turned to his cousin Dev Alahand (Jimmi Harkishin) for help.

Although business was good for Street Cars locally, the bosses were almost always short of drivers.

A stroke of luck led to Eileen Grimshaw (Sue Cleaver) being hired as a radio operator after Vik was impressed by her extensive knowledge of the area.

Unfortunately, the year 2002 brought major trouble to Street Cars as the office was investigated by the Taxi Licensing Enforcement Team following a series of complaints of sexual harassment on part of a driver.

As mentioned above, Vik was too often more concerned about his love life than anything else and he eventually found out this would be to his detriment – his former girlfriend Bobbi Lewis admitted she had filed the complaint to get back at him.

Throughout his time in the cobbles, Vik was also romantically involved with Maxine Heavey, Leanne Battersby (Jane Danson) and Maria Sutherland (Samia Longchambon).

Things only got worse for Vik down the line when he became a part of a drug smuggling plot to clear his gambling debts.

This led to him hiding cocaine inside Karen McDonald’s suitcase when she went to Tenerife with her husband and Vik’s business partner Steve.

The latter found out when Vik had done and he emptied out the drugs into the canal.

Vik left Coronation Street after more than three years in December, 2002, when he cleared out Street Cars’ tax account and booked a one-way ticket to Mumbai.

He hasn’t been heard from or see ever since.

Who played Vikram Desai in Coronation Street?

Emmerdale viewers may have forgotten that before rocking up the ITV village as Jai Sharma, actor Chris Bisson was part of the Corrie line-up whilst he portrayed Vik Desai.

The role was one of his first as a TV star as he had made previous sporadic appearances on small screens prior to his three years in Coronation Street.

Following his stint, Chris appeared in several other programs in the likes of Holby City, Shameless, Doctors, Echo Beach, Casualty and Hotel Babylon.

He became a regular character in Emmerdale in 2009 and has been in the Yorkshire-based soap ever since.

Meanwhile, Coronation Street continues to air ever Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8pm on ITV.