Balvinder Sopal reacts to Amar Adatia's EastEnders exit

alvinder Sopal was "very sad" when she found out Amar Adatia was leaving \'EastEnders\'.

The soap star - who joined the cast in January as Suki Panesar - has opened up on her on-screen son\'s exit from Albert Square, with the Jas Panesar actor set to leave next week.

She told Digital Spy: "Initially, I felt very sad. I felt like we were just getting to know each other as an on-screen family and we were just starting to get to grips with working the dynamics of the family.

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"It was really interesting and intriguing. I guess because of COVID as well, our time together was cut short. I was quite sad.

"I felt the character had a lot more potentially - there was certainly more potential we could have played as a family. But hey ho, these things happen. You just have to bite the bullet and get on and do it."

Amar finished filming his final scenes over the summer, but Balvinder revealed they have still kept in touch.

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She added: "We still keep in touch and we did all through lockdown as well. We\'ve created a really nice unit off screen as well.

"Hopefully when things lift in terms of restrictions, we\'ll be going for dinners and things like that.

"We still keep in touch, we FaceTime now and again as a whole clan - all four of us, or even five of us if we can all get on. I really hope we will stay in touch as he is a lovely guy."

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Amar - who joined the soap in October last year - admitted last month that he always knew he would exit the show after a "set period of time" and has ended up staying longer in Walford than initially planned, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He said: "I was really lucky to have those extra months of filming and to spend time with everyone on set before I said goodbye."