Coronation Street actor Adam Hussain has said he decided to quit the popular soap after five years to “spread my wings”.
Having joined the cast of the long-running programme during Covid, the 24-year-old, who plays Aadi Alahan, the son of Dev (Jimi Harkishin) and Sunita (Shobna Gulati), left the soap this week.
He said he felt it was the right time to leave and that the producers understood his decision.
“I am going to be 25 in October, and I felt it was the right time to leave,” he told The Mirror. “It was my decision, and the producers were so understanding.”
He said: “I want to spread my wings a little, go out in the big world and see what else I can do.”
Hussain said he is “really excited” after landing a new role in a horror feature film. “I can’t say too much yet, but I am looking forward to it,” he said.
The opportunities have been plentiful for the actor who said he has had lots of other auditions since filming his last Coronation Street scenes in June.
“I’ve filmed a part in a short film, Spice For Life, too,” he continued. “We are sending it off to film festivals at the moment. It’s an exploration of cultures coming together.”
Reflecting on his last days on the show, he said the experience of leaving had been “both scary and exciting”.
“I had a whole mix of emotions because I did get very nostalgic,” he said. “I also knew it was the right decision to go.”
As part of Hussain’s final storyline, his character Aadi moves to India and the actor said this was an intentional decision by bosses not to kill him off. The character’s storyline has been left open-ended so that he can return whenever he is ready.
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“It’s very relieving to know I can always return whenever I want to,” he said. “And they’ve told me the door will always be left open if I ever want to come back. My friends on set were gutted when I first told them, but they also understood.”
Describing the experience of joining the show during the pandemic as a “weird and surreal time to take on a new character”, Hussain said he has “grown in confidence” and “learnt so much about how it works on a soap set as well as the industry as a whole.”
“My life has changed for the better since I joined Corrie and it has been such an honour to be part of the amazing cast,” he said. “I’ve loved playing Aadi, I have made good friends on the set, and I am going to miss Corrie dearly.”
Coronation Street has recently been hit with a series of cast departures, including Harry Lowbridge, who played the villain Logan Radcliffe, and Sally Ann Matthews, known for playing the fiery Rovers Return landlady Jenny Connor, who announced she’s leaving the soap after decades on screen.
