As many will know, it can just take one cruel comment to knock your confidence to rock bottom, and it’s an experience artist and actor Nitin

Ganatra is very familiar with.

Best known as EastEnders’ Masood Ahmed – a role for which he still is most recognised to this day, something he is more than flattered by – Nitin has embarked on a blossoming new career as a painter, even hosting his own pop-up exhibition in London.

However, there was a long time where this felt out of his grasp – decades in fact – due to cruel comments about his work from an art dealer when he was just 17-years-old.

For so many years, his childhood dream felt shattered.

‘I was on my way to Bristol university for an interview, and I had my portfolio with me,’ Nitin told me in an exclusive Metro interview.

‘I was 17 and on a train, and the guy opposite me was an art dealer. We got chatting and I asked him to look at my art work and tell me what he thought. He agreed, and looked at it and scoffed.

‘He said, “No you’re never going to make it. Forget it, this is schoolboy stuff.” It broke my heart, because that was what I wanted to be.’

Previous to that, Nitin spent what he calls a tumultuous childhood seekingsolace in drawing and painting. Come rain or shine, he would have a brush or pencil in his hand, even sitting outside in the snow on some occasions.

The medium was his therapy – and still remains so to this day – but the incident knocked him off course.

Thinking now of what he would say in retrospect to his younger 17-year-old self, his answer was one that perhaps many can relate to.

‘In that moment, to that 17-year-old boy I would advise him to learn to say “Go f*** yourself” more often! Learn to say it. Don’t believe everything you’re told because I’ve spent my life being knocked down by people’s comments.

‘Maybe I’m a little bit more sensitive to them than others, but when you have a belief and someone wants to trash on your dream and kick it to the curb, it’s because of them, not you. It’s because of their own lack of fulfilment. That 17-year-old boy gave up a dream because of that comment.’

Of his other career, he added: ‘Lots of people told me I was never going to make it as an actor, and last year was 30 years as an actor for me. I got my Equity card in 1994. Now, I’ve come full circle to the world of painting again.’

And he couldn’t be happier in the run up to the exhibition which will showcase 24 pieces he has worked on since lockdown, which is when he decided to explore what he loved again.

Having experienced a depression during that time, he credits the venture with saving him.

‘It was like falling in love again, with my younger self and my younger childhood sweetheart who had disappeared out of my life for 18 years, and suddenly I’d reconnected with art in such a profound way that I just couldn’t stop painting,’ he smiled.

‘Lockdown was profound for everyone, even when they thought they were coping, it was a very profound thing that society went through.

‘For me, I hit a huge depression, so the painting became that place where I felt safe again, and what’s different about it than the acting world is that I’m in control of my work.

‘That’s where I’ve become a lot more authentic, simply because acting is a collaborative process where you’re serving the writing, the director, the camera, but painting is just me opening my heart on a canvas. It was quitelife affirming for me to get some control that way.’

And when he, with some nerves and anxiety, shared a painting on Instagram, he was blown away by the positive comments. And while very coy in his response to that, it gave him such a boost that has now led him to where he is – many paintings on display at a private exhibition.

While the exhibition, worked on with Integrity International Trust, is invite only, Nitin insists that much of the work can be viewed in passing – he encourages a look at the paintings around the corner from Broadway after departing from St James’ Park tube station.

‘I don’t have a concept that I want to transfer onto the canvas, but there is an emotive nature to them,’ he mused. ‘The response I’ve been getting from people who have looked at my paintings is an emotional response. People feel something. There’s a story in the paintings.

‘I’m still a firm believer that it’s the creative world that changes society. It’s the governments that keep society running, but it’s the creatives that nurture the society we live in.

‘A lot of my collections are on in the gallery. The big one for me with the most loved paintings is The Boy with the Boxing Gloves. I remember talking to one woman who got quite weepy looking at them.

‘There’s a theme of nature in there. There’s a theme of this boy, and innocence, and healing, and courage. These are things that I start to find within myself while I’m painting.’

Nature is something that Nitin truly embraces in his day to day life, not just with his artwork. Unashamedly calling himself a ‘tree hugger’, he added: ‘I have a terrible affliction of not being able to switch off. I don’t sleep well and I’m an overthinker, but the time I do switch off my brain is when I’m being creative.

‘Essentially, it all comes down to nature. Getting fresh air and putting your bare feet on grass. I have no embarrassment about that.

‘There was a time when I’d have kept it to myself as people would have said it was spiritual and hippy nonsense. It is that, yes, but it’s not nonsense at all. It’s very therapeutic to be in nature.’

But for those who enjoy Nitin’s work in TV and theatre, never fear. He won’t give up acting when the right parts come along, despite his ambition to work on his art full time.

Even getting critical acclaim from the likes of Michael Gambon in the past, something which gave him goosebumps, he remains proud of everything he’s done, including EastEnders – which is refreshing to hear when someone gets so many roles and also moves on with his career.

But it’s true to say that art is now getting his most attention and passion, with it having re-invigorated him.

The concept of it becoming a full career seems within reach these days, and Nitin is excited by that.

Reflecting, he said: ‘For me, it’s a dream come true, because I always wanted to be an artist full time. I love my solitude, I can hide away for long periods of time. So, to paint and to have it exhibited and bought, sold and collected – this was what I wanted to do as a kid.

‘My life took me into acting instead, which has been incredibly fulfilling too, and incredibly successful, but to return to painting and make it a full-time thing where people want to buy your art because they love it, or investors want to make money on it, it’s become a reality for me.

‘It’s a very exciting time now for me, because to follow your dream is tough for people to do. We’re forced into getting by and surviving and paying the bills.

‘We live in difficult times, I wouldn’t want to leave this life regretting that I didn’t try. You regret not trying to fulfil your dream. It’s taken this long to come to that.’