Everybody Loves Rishi

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During our first bowling game, Sagar Radia, a well-known figure in his field, turned to me and asked, “Are you good under pressure?” It was a Friday at noon, and we were relaxing with Pepsi and pizza – a bit too much cheese! – in a mostly empty bowling alley in Times Square. A group of teenagers skipping school were bowling nearby, and 2010s pop hits – mostly One Direction and Charlie Puth – played on the screens. The air smelled clean and sterile. Neither of us had bowled in years, so Sagar suggested a deal: we wouldn’t share our scores unless they were actually good.

Rishi Ramdani, a sharp and often crude trader played by Radia on HBO’s Industry, thrives on risky situations – the kind he’d definitely bet on. He’s a fan favorite, despite being older and more abrasive than the recent college graduates he works with at a London investment firm. In the show’s first season, Rishi was known for his outrageous and sexually explicit comments on the trading floor. While Radia initially received more praise for those lines (many added in post-production) than for his acting, the series evolved beyond simple workplace drama. Rishi’s relentless pursuit of more – both financially and personally – came to represent the excesses of the wealthy and the show’s growing complexity. We see him engaging in reckless behavior, like doing drugs and having an affair with a colleague at his own wedding. A particularly memorable episode showed his attempt to adapt to a quieter life in the countryside while struggling with a large gambling debt, ultimately ending tragically with the murder of his wife. The show’s creators deliberately create difficult situations for their characters at the end of each season, and season four pushes Rishi’s story to its darkest point yet.

Radia is polite and a little quiet in person – he’s wearing a comfortable cream sweater and speaks much softer and slower than his character. But when we played bowling, I saw flashes of the confidence his character, Rishi, has. I got lucky with a strike in the first round, but Radia, who’s a skilled bowler and also plays soccer regularly, won by getting a spare in the final frame. I lost the second round easily. Radia explained he performs well under pressure. This confidence is what the show’s creators, Kay and Down, noticed after the first season. He’d expressed concerns about being stuck with a small role, but they were drawn to his self-assurance. Rishi’s confident personality helped shape his character, Sagar, and as Sagar grew, they felt comfortable giving him a major storyline like the ‘White Mischief’ episode.

If a recent, intense episode left you feeling anxious, the fourth season’s “1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn” might be even more unsettling. Rishi is completely lost after his wife dies, haunted by rumors of his ruined reputation and appearing withdrawn and lifeless. He’s locked in a bitter custody battle with his mother-in-law and resorts to watching pornography to cope. He also does secretive, demeaning work for Harper, gathering damaging information about companies for her investment fund. When Harper asks him to get information from financial journalist James Dyker (played by Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things), who is also struggling with addiction, the two share a chaotic night getting high. The creators jokingly called this sequence “the sesh from hell,” describing it as a night where a man, fueled by drugs, rants about the problems with modern society.

In a scene perfectly capturing the essence of the show Industry, director Michelle Savill presents a chaotic sequence of drugs, phones, and emotional distance. When James asks Rishi about witnessing his wife’s death, Rishi zones out, lost in the memory. He seeks more cocaine, only to find James has overdosed, coinciding with a police raid. Rishi tries to escape by jumping off the balcony. According to creators Kay and Down, this isn’t just about escaping the room, but escaping the consequences of his own flaws and impulses—the very things the cutthroat world of finance preys upon. They question whether Rishi even cares if he dies. True to the show’s dark humor, Rishi survives the fall, but is arrested while attempting to crawl away with severely injured legs. Radia points out the irony: Rishi wasn’t going to escape accountability, even if his desperate attempt felt like a suicide attempt. Radia notes a subtle grin on Rishi’s face as he’s arrested, suggesting he feels he’s finally receiving the consequences he deserves. This moment, she explains, felt like a twisted sense of justice being served.

The final scene for Rishi this season, set to the song “Forever Young” by Alphaville, felt like a bittersweet farewell. Interestingly, the show’s creators only discovered later that the same song also appeared in another film by the Safdie brothers, who heavily influenced this episode. This marks Rishi’s last appearance on the show, and director Pete Radia describes filming the scene as a swan song. The scene shows Rishi sharing information with Harper, Eric, and Sweetpea – colleagues he used to playfully tease. Radia notes that key members of the production team, Kay and Down, came to watch even though they weren’t directing, making it a quietly emotional goodbye. Radia recalls a simple exchange of kind words, and while he doesn’t rule out a potential return for Rishi, he believes this is a fitting end to his character arc – leaving the audience wanting more.

Radia often trusts his instincts when making career choices. He stumbled into acting after a former child actor friend suggested he try classes, a field he jokingly admits isn’t known for stability. In his early twenties, he struggled to find consistent work, often being offered roles like cab drivers, terrorists, or a supporting best friend. While he acknowledges those stories have their place, they didn’t reflect his own experiences or the kinds of roles he wanted. By 25, he became discouraged and briefly left acting, taking a sales job at an advertising agency. He quickly realized it wasn’t a good fit. His big break came in 2016 when he was cast as an understudy to Kunal Nayyar in Jesse Eisenberg’s play The Spoils in London. When Nayyar had to leave to film The Big Bang Theory, Radia got the chance to take over the role. He fondly remembers Eisenberg as a generous and dedicated artist who took the time to rehearse with him, and says the play was truly life-changing.

Radia’s success with the run led to an audition for the ITV medical drama, The Good Karma Hospital, which follows a British woman who moves to Southern India. He was cast as the easygoing son of the hospital director and spent three seasons filming in Sri Lanka. He then auditioned for Industry, seeing it as a potentially rewarding, low-pressure role – a small part in a new HBO series with a young cast that could become popular. He initially planned to film Industry and then return to the more established Good Karma, but after Industry‘s first season, he had to choose between the two shows. The creators of Industry, Kay and Down, had hinted at a bigger role for his character, Rishi, and Radia decided to take a chance. “I figured, why not?” he says. “I turned down the other job.”

Despite Rishi’s forceful personality and outward confidence – reminiscent of how the actor portrays him dominating his workspace early in the series – his appeal actually comes from the actor’s understanding of his character’s hidden vulnerabilities. The actor sees Rishi as someone deeply motivated by the desire to fit in as a second-generation immigrant. He was happy the show’s creators chose a distinctly British country wedding for Rishi, rather than a traditional Indian one, as it highlighted how much Rishi craved acceptance by the established elite. You can sense what Rishi has given up to assimilate; for example, he names a dog Rajah, after the tiger from Aladdin. Having grown up around other children of immigrants, the actor recognized men like Rishi who worked hard to enter competitive fields and secure high-paying jobs. “His confidence, his boldness, and his humor were all ways of making others feel at ease around him,” the actor explains. “It’s a way of protecting himself. If anyone senses weakness, they might try to exploit it.”

Radia has a knack for softening his tough on-screen persona, revealing a surprisingly relatable side that’s earned him a dedicated fanbase. He recently had a chance encounter with John Legend in London, who recognized him immediately and told him he was currently enjoying his show, even pointing him out to his wife, Chrissy Teigen. Similarly, comedian Chris Rock brought up the series when they met in Soho. While Radia is cautious about discussing his future projects, he speaks about upcoming roles with the perspective of someone who’s experienced both success and setbacks. As their dinner winds down with Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next” playing, Radia reflects on his character. He admits it was fun to play someone so different from himself, and he’s still adjusting to talking about the role in the past tense. He initially worried that fans would expect him to be his character, Rishi, but he’s often relieved to find they simply enjoy watching him on screen from a distance.

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2026-02-02 20:56