The Asian Awards is an annual award ceremony for the global Asian community which takes place in the United Kingdom, with 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. Nominees are selected by an independent judging panel initially co-chaired by Baroness Verma and Nat Wei, Baron Wei then from 2014 onwards Karan Bilimoria, Baron Bilimoria.[1][2]
In 2010 and 2011, the awards were only open to those born in or with direct family origin from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. From 2013, they were expanded to include all people of South, East and South East Asian origin.[3]
The tenth edition of the awards will take place in October 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be hosted in Dubai for the first time.
History
Founder Paul Sagoo at the 2010 Asian Awards
The Asian Awards were founded by businessman Paul Sagoo OBE through his Lemon Group.[4]
Past awards
2010
The 1st Asian Awards took place on 26 October 2010 at Grosvenor House Hotel and was hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe.[5] The 2010 Asian Awards featured a presentation of The Lifetime Achievement Award that was presented to Amitabh Bachchan. A live musical performance was provided by Sonu Nigam.[6] The 2010 Peoples Choice Award, voted entirely by the public, was won by Sachin Tendulkar.[7]
On the night itself, images of all winners were broadcast in Times Square.[8][9][10]
2011
The 2nd Asian Awards was again hosted by Coe in October 2011.[11] The 2011 Asian Awards featured a presentation of The Lifetime Achievement Award that was presented to Asha Bhosle in addition Coe presented a Guinness World Record for Most Recorded Artist of all time at over 11,000 recordings.[12]
The Founder's Award, an award given directly by the founders Paul Sagoo and UBM, was presented posthumously to Freddie Mercury. His mother and sister were presented the award by Freddie's former band member Brian May.[13]
2012
The Asian Awards did not take place in 2012 and no official reason has been cited although the event was moved from its regular October date to April 2013.[14]
2013
The 3rd Asian Awards was hosted by Coe in April 2013. The event was opened by Sagoo and followed by a keynote speech from the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne.[15]
The awards were expanded to include winners from all Asian countries (China, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and others) as well as the traditional South Asian countries from which winners had been honoured previously.[16]
Sir Ben Kingsley was given the Fellowship award and the late Bruce Lee was honoured with the Founders Award which was collected by his widow Linda Lee Cadwell.[17][18]
2014
The 4th Asian Awards was hosted by Nikki Bedi in April 2014. The event was opened by Sagoo who commented on the continued pan-Asian expansion.[19]
The 5th Asian Awards was hosted by previous Asian Awards winner Gok Wan in April 2015. The event was opened by Sagoo followed by the cast of Bend It Like Beckham the Musical who performed a song from the musical.[21] The event was headlined by the British Asian Trust.
The Asian Awards trended worldwide on Twitter at the number one spot for over 4 hours and specifically trended in India at the number 1 spot for nearly 2 days. The media particularly commented on the presence of Zayn Malik's attendance as it was the first time since his split from the band One Direction. Post the awards, Sagoo commented (through social media) on the lack of TV coverage from the British television networks.[23]
The Awards also broke two specific Twitter records by having the most tweeted tweet by an Indian (that a picture of Shah Rukh Khan and Zayn Malik)and also the very same tweet was the most popular "Selfie" of 2015.[24]
2016
The 6th Asian Awards was hosted by Alistair McGowan on 8 April 2016. The event was opened by Founder Paul Sagoo who discussed the issues of diversity within award ceremonies and how The Asian Awards were to be opened up to people with non-Asian backgrounds.[25]
The 7th Asian Awards was hosted by Bhaskar in May 2017 at The London Hilton on Park Lane. The event was opened by Sagoo who discussed diversity in television and how many of the main UK channels are failing their own diversity targets. It was also mentioned that The Asian Awards would honour its second recipient with a non-Asian background. The Rising Star award also made its debut this year with the star of the Oscar nominated film LionSunny Pawar receiving it. It was noted that he had been snubbed by other award ceremonies including the Oscars and thus The Asian Awards were "correcting" this mistake.[27]
The 8th Asian Awards were once again hosted by Sanjeev Bhaskar on 27 April 2018 at The London Hilton on Park Lane. It was noted that the 8th Awards honoured the most number of women in their history to date. Legendary actress, the late Sridevi, was posthumously honoured with the Outstanding Achievement in Cinema award.[29]
The 9th Asian Awards again hosted by Sanjeev Bhaskar on 12 April 2019 at The Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane. The centenary anniversary of the Jalianwala Bagh Massacre was marked with the Founders award presented to the nephew of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.[31]
Award categories
Lifetime Achievement Award
Entrepreneur of the Year
Business Leader of the Year
Public Servant of the Year
Social Entrepreneur of the Year
Philanthropist of the Year
Founder's Award (Introduced in 2011)
Fellowship Award (Introduced in 2011)
People's Choice Award
The Rising Star Award (Introduced in 2017)
Outstanding Achievement in Cinema
Outstanding Achievement in Sports
Outstanding Achievement in Music
Outstanding Achievement in Television
Outstanding Achievement in Art & Design
Outstanding Achievement in Science & Technology (Introduced in 2011)
Outstanding Contribution to Sustainability (Introduced in 2013)
Outstanding Contribution to the Community (Introduced in 2016)
Outstanding Achievement Online (Introduced in 2019)
Winners
1st Awards
The following were recipients at the 1st Asian Awards 2010.[32][33]
