Star of BBC's new The Split spin-off accepted lead role because Sanjeev Bhaskar was playing her dad

The Split may have ended its four-season run in 2024, but the story is continuing with the spin-off The Split Up, a new legal drama that follows Aria Kishan as she sets out to take over the family law firm from her father Dhruv (Sanjeev Bhaskar).

Aria is played by The Umbrella Academy's Ritu Arya, who revealed in an exclusive interview with Digital Spy that she took on the role for a very specific reason.

“I just loved the contradictions that my character had, and then they told me that Sanjeev would be playing my dad, and I was like, 'Yes, I'm in, I'm in, please'," she said.

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Sanjeev responded: "That's very flattering." He then jokingly added: "So, if they got someone else, would you have said no then?"

"I had so much fun working with Sanjeev", Ritu continued, while he called her "brilliant" and "fantastic", and said that working together was an "absolute joy".

"It was the same for me. When I knew it was a day that we'd be working together, I just would be so excited, and it just... I felt so safe," Ritu explained.

"I felt like we could play, and yeah, it felt spontaneous and alive. And so, not only was it [that] I get to hang out with this amazing human that I adore and that I'm constantly laughing with - that's so giving - but also I felt like we got to really play whilst we were acting. So yes, as well, so much joy."

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Other cast members in the show include Juice's Mawaan Rizwan, Matilda the Musical's Sindhu Vee, Virdee's Aysha Kala, Film Club's Arian Nik, The White Lotus' Shalini Peiris and Queenie's Tom Forbes.

Lenny Henry, Jane Horrocks and Jameela Jamil are all set to make guest appearances, too.

The Split Up will premiere this Sunday (2o September) at 9pm on BBC One, and stream on BBC iPlayer.

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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.

Freelance film & TV writer, Digital Spy
Critic and writer Jo Berry has been writing about TV and movies since she began her career at Time Out aged 18. A regular on BBC Radio, Jo has written for titles including Empire, Maxim, Radio Times, OK!, The Guardian and Grazia, is the author of books including Chick Flicks and The Parents’ Guide to Kids’ Movies. 

She is also the editor of website Movies4Kids. In her career, Jo has interviewed well-known names including Beyonce, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Kiefer Sutherland, Tom Cruise and all the Avengers, spent many an hour crushed in the press areas of award show red carpets. Jo is also a self-proclaimed expert on Outlander and Brassic, and completely agrees that Die Hard is a Christmas movie.