sanjay kapoor, played by deepak verma, is a market trader who has an eye for the ladies and a weakness for gambling. he is always full of big ideas and get-rich-quick schemes, which never work. in 1998, "eastenders" acquired a new executive producer, matthew robinson. robinson was dubbed "the axeman" in the british press, after a large proportion of the "eastenders" cast either quit, or were culled, shortly after robinson's introduction. it was reported that robinson hoped the changes would attract more viewers and "spice up [the soap's fictional setting of] walford". among the departing characters were long-running asian family the kapoors, including sanjay, gita (shobu kapoor) and neelam kapoor (jamila massey). as they were the only asian characters in the show, "eastenders" received criticism for axing them from angry black and asian mps, including oona king, mp for east end constituency bethnal green and dr ashok kumar.