Winners show wealth of Asian talent in British arts

Eastern Eye Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts: George Alagiah

BBC news presenter George Alagiah is one of the most trusted news anchors in the country, whose nightly broadcasts are watched by millions.

Born in Sri Lanka, Alagiah’s family moved to Ghana in Africa to escape persecution and then to England where he continued his studies.

Alagiah got the journalism bug at university while writing for the student paper and went on to write for South magazine before joining the BBC in 1989.

After a stint in London, he moved to Johannesburg as the BBC’s Southern Africa correspondent where he built a reputation for robust but impartial reporting and secured interviews with some of the most promi­nent leaders in the continent.

Eastern Eye Award for Arts: Waqas Khan for his ex­hibition at the Manchester Art Gallery

Lahore-based Waqas Khan is a visual artist known for his pen and ink works on paper. He employs small dashes and minuscule dots to create large entangle­ments which explore the concept of togetherness. His solo exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery show­cased new pieces including In the Name of God II, Doors and Symphony and a Trio. His works are part of public collections including at the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Manchester Museum, the Deutsche Bank Collection in Frankfurt and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi.

Eastern Eye Award for Dance: Aakash Odedra for #JeSuis

The British dancer and choreographer’s style draws from classical Indian dance, contemporary dance and theatre. Among the choreographers who have created works for him are Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Russell Maliphant for Rising, Damien Jalet for Inked and Aditi Mangaldas for Echoes. Odedra’s latest work #JeSuis was inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis and explores personal stories of conflict, media ma­nipulation, displacement and identity. The dancers for this work are all Turkish and the piece premiered at the New York University in Abu Dhabi before coming to the UK this year. In April, the Aakash Odedra Com­pany became a National Portfolio Organisation of the Arts Council England.

Eastern Eye Award for Literature: Vaseem Khan for The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star

British-born Khan’s crime novels, set in India, feature retired Mumbai police inspector Ashwin Chopra and his sidekick, a baby elephant named Ganesha.

Khan was born in London, but spent a decade working in India as a management consultant. He re­turned to the UK in 2006 and has since worked at University College London for the Department of Se­curity and Crime Science.

The author says the aim of his books are to give readers an idea of what modern India “looks, feels, sounds, smells and even tastes like”.

Eastern Eye Award for Music: Anoushka Shankar for her score to Shiraz

With six Grammy nominations, sitar player and com­poser Anoushka Shankar has established a reputation as an artist of repute in the Indian classical and pro­gressive world music scenes. Shankar studied under her father and guru, the late Ravi Shankar, and made her professional debut as a classical sitarist at the age of 13. By the time she was 20, she had made three clas­sical recordings and received her first Grammy nomi­nation, becoming the first female and youngest-ever nominee in the World Music category.

Shiraz was first released in 1928 and restored by the British Film Institute (BFI) last year. It tells the story behind the construction of the Taj Mahal and the un­wavering commitment of two men to the woman who inspired it. It was Shankar’s first feature film score and won praise from critics and audiences alike.

In 2017, Shankar premiered her father and Philip Glass’ 1964 concept album Passages at London’s Royal Albert Hall during the BBC Proms.

Eastern Eye Award for Comedy: Ayesha Hazarika for her State of the Nation show

Ayesha Hazarika MBE is a columnist and political commentator known for her insightful and witty opin­ions on current affairs. Having started her career as a stand-up comedian, she later became a special ad­viser to the Labour party leader Ed Miliband.

Since leaving frontline politics, Hazarika has pre­sented shows on LBC as well as The Wright Stuff on Channel 5. She makes regular appearances on CNN Talk, ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Sky Papers on Sky News, The Andrew Marr Show, Newsnight and BBC Radio 4’s The Today Programme.

Last year, she toured The State of the Nation, offer­ing an honest and humorous take on life behind the scenes at Westminster.

Eastern Eye Award for Best Presenter: Dr Ranj Singh for the CBeebies series Get Well Soon and Get Well Soon Hospital

Dr Ranj Singh has established himself as one of the most popular and knowledgeable presenters on tele­vision. A speciality doctor in paediatric emergency medicine, he is one of the resident doctors on ITV’s This Morning, co-presenter of the primetime ITV se­ries Save Money: Good Health and co-creator and host of the BAFTA winning CBeebies series Get Well Soon.

Off air, Dr Singh’s work can be found in numerous magazines and websites where he gives expert opin­ion and advice on a range of physical and mental health matters. He has published two children’s school books with Oxford University Press, which are distributed internationally.

Eastern Eye Award for Best Production: Asif Khan and Tara Arts for the play Combustion

Asif Khan’s debut play Combustion was co-produced by AIK Productions in association with Tara Arts in 2017.

Set in Khan’s home town of Bradford, it tells the story of a Muslim family trying to make their way in the world by running a garage business against the backdrop of a city rocked by the scandal of grooming gangs and the presence of the English Defence League.

Combustion toured nationally last year, ending its run at the Bradford Literature Festival.

AIK Productions aims to produce new, quality thea­tre with a focus on stories and voices from minority backgrounds. Khan, an award-winning actor and writ­er, studied at the University of Bradford and trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has performed in and written numerous plays, and featured on the BBC New Talent Hotlist 2017 for new writers.

Eastern Eye Award for Best Director: Pooja Ghai for Lions and Tigers

The play Lions and Tigers by Tanika Gupta, which was staged at Shakespeare’s Globe last year, is based upon the true story of the author’s great uncle, Dinesh Gupta, an Indian freedom fighter.

Ghai is an actor turned theatre director. Born in Kenya, East Africa, she settled in Britain in the 1980s. She has a passion for new writing, especially that which explores the genre from beyond the western perspective. Ghai was associate director of Theatre Royal Stratford East from 2015 to 2018.

Eastern Eye Emerging Artist Award: Reece Bahia

Reece Bahia wanted to be a dentist but dropped the idea to pursue his love of music and went onto study Performing Arts at Stratford College. He won the lead role in Michael Jackson’s Thriller Live at the West End after five gruelling auditions.

Bahia previously featured in Simon Cowell’s You Generation advert and also appeared on the Voice UK in 2014. He went on to star in Laila the Musical, which toured the UK. In 2016, Bahia recorded his first r’n’b EP Addicted.

Eastern Eye Community Engagement Award: Sci­ence Museum for the Illuminating India season

Illuminating India was a multi-faceted exhibition cel­ebrating 5,000 years of India’s contribution to science, technology and mathematics. As part of the British Council UK-India 2017 year, celebrating historic bilat­eral ties, the season showcased two major exhibitions alongside specially commissioned artwork.

One celebrated India’s central role in the history of science and technology, while the other explored pho­tography’s cultural development and changing role in charting the recent history of India. The exhibitions aimed to tell the stories of the Indian innovators and thinkers who have often been overlooked or written out of Western narratives of history. One of the high­lights of the exhibition was a folio of the Bakhshali manuscript containing the world’s oldest recorded origin of the zero symbol.

Eastern Eye Award for Theatre, Best Actor: Raj Gha­tak in The Kite Runner

Actor Raj Ghatak, who has appeared in numerous plays and films, is currently starring as the central nar­rator Amir in the national tour of The Kite Runner, based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini and adapted by Matthew Spangler.

Ghatak trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Queen Mary University and has performed in both plays and musicals in the West End. His roles include the award-nominated Miss Meena and the Masala Queens, the world premiere of the multi-award winning Everybody’s Talking About Jamie and Bombay Dreams, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. Ghatak’s television credits include Het­ty Feather, EastEnders and Dead Set, and he will next be seen in Disney’s Christopher Robin.

Eastern Eye Award for Theatre, Best Actress: Meera Syal for Annie

Award-winning actress Meera Syal recently complet­ed a West End run starring as Miss Hannigan in the musical Annie.

Syal was part of the team behind the BBC hit com­edy Goodness Gracious Me, exploring British Asian culture. She was nominated for a Best Comedy Perfor­mance BAFTA for her role as Sanjeev Bhaskar’s grand­mother Ummi, in The Kumars at No 42.

Among her recent TV credits are the BBC drama The Split, Broadchurch and The Musketeers. Her stage credits include Kenneth Branagh’s Romeo and Juliet, Behind the Beautiful Forevers and Much Ado About Nothing.

Her debut novel, Anita and Me, is now on the school curriculum.

Syal will soon be seen in Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, to be released later this year.

She was awarded a CBE in 2015 for her services to drama and literature.

Eastern Eye Award for Film, TV & Drama, Best Ac­tor: Sacha Dhawan for the Boy with the TopKnot

Actor Sacha Dhawan has performed on stage, film, television and radio. The Boy with the TopKnot, a one-off BBC drama, was adapted for the screen from jour­nalist and author Sathnam Sanghera’s best-selling memoir of the same title. Dhawan plays Sanghera, who narrates his family’s personal struggle to cope with his father’s mental illness.

Dhawan has appeared in films such as The Lady in the Van and After Earth. His television credits include a leading role in Not Safe For Work, Utopia, Mr Selfridge, Outsourced and Sherlock.

He is currently starring in Marvel’s Iron Fist, a US television series created for Netflix.

Eastern Eye Award for Film, TV & Drama, Best Ac­tress: Indira Varma for Game of Thrones

Born to an Indian father and Swiss mother, Indira Varma grew up in Bath and has been a regular in thea­tre, television and film. In 1997 she played Maya in Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra, A Tale of Love.

More recently, Varma landed the part to play the fiery Ellaria Sand in Season 4 of Game of Thrones, the world’s biggest TV drama.

She is currently filming The One and Only Ivan, co-produced by Angelina Jolie and is set to star in the US web drama series Carnival Row next year.

Varma will star in Exit the King, directed by Patrick Marber, later this year at the National Theatre.

She has also starred in films including Jinnah and Bride and Prejudice and her stage credits include plays on Broadway and at the National Theatre.

On television she has appeared in Luther, Human Target, Paranoid and Patrick Melrose.

Eastern Eye People’s Choice Award, as voted by the readers of Eastern Eye: Naughty Boy

Acclaimed producer and songwriter Naughty Boy has worked with an array of stars, including Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé. He recently collaborated with US singer Joe Jonas for his hit single One Chance to Dance. Naughty Boy rose to fame with his debut album Hotel Cabana, featuring the hit single Wonder with Emeli Sandé.

He has also worked with superstars such as Leona Lewis, Sam Smith and Cheryl Cole.

Eastern Eye Editor’s Special Award: Anita Rani for the TV programme My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947

Anita Rani appears on the BBC’s One Show and Coun­try File. She presented and co-produced BBC One’s two-part series My Family, Partition and Me: India 1947 to mark the 70th anniversary of the partition of India. Rani explored the human impact of the division of the country through the stories of four British fami­lies, including her own.

Using first-hand testimonials from partition survi­vors, their children and grandchildren, the documen­tary retraced the dramatic journeys they were forced to make during partition.

Rani also hosted the Strictly Come Dancing Live Tour in early 2017, having previously participated in the show in 2015.