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"EastEnders star Nitin Ganatra has admitted that he was pleased when he learned that Masood Ahmed would leave his son&amp;#039;s former lover Christian Clarke to be attacked in a forthcoming episode of the soap. The surprise twist occurs following Syed Masood&amp;#039;s (Marc Elliott) recent decision to finally go public over his secret relationship with Christian, leaving his wife Amira (Preeya Kalidas) heartbroken. Fans will soon see Christian (John Partridge) get beaten up by a gang of thugs led by Amira&amp;#039;s father Qadim (Ramon Tikaram), who is furious over the barman&amp;#039;s behaviour. Although Masood witnesses the attack, he decides to walk straight on without helping Christian. Speaking to DS about the shock moment, Ganatra explained: &amp;quot;I love it! Masood can often be too nice or too laid-back but he&amp;#039;s flexible. So for them to write that Masood walks on by when Christian&amp;#039;s being beaten up - that&amp;#039;s such a brilliant additional layer to the character.  &amp;quot;We get to see an even darker side of Masood. When we filmed the first take of that scene, all the extras and the crew gasped and started hissing!&amp;quot; The actor confirmed that he does not regard Qadim&amp;#039;s violence as a &amp;quot;homophobic attack&amp;quot;, instead describing it as &amp;quot;an angry dad venting his frustration&amp;quot;. He added: &amp;quot;But what confused me was that he didn&amp;#039;t beat up Syed - I&amp;#039;m still not sure why they didn&amp;#039;t do that. We&amp;#039;ve been questioning why and I&amp;#039;m sure they had a good reason, but I think that&amp;#039;s one for Dom [Treadwell-Collins] and the story team!&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Click here to read our interview with Nitin Ganatra &amp;gt; Click here to read more from Nitin Ganatra in Soap Scoop "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/eastenders/news/a216845/ganatra-praises-enders-attack-twist/>