Country United Kingdom First awarded 2010 | Presented by Paul Sagoo | |
 | ||
Awarded for Honouring Asian Excellence Official website | ||
The Asian Awards is an award ceremony which takes place in the United Kingdom that recognises and rewards exemplary achievement across 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. Nominees are selected by an independent judging panel consisting a panel co-chaired by Baroness Verma of Leicester and Nat Wei, Baron Wei. The Asian Awards, reward outstanding achievement from within the global Asian community. 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. In 2013, the Asian Awards were opened to all people of both South and Eastern Asian origin. This pan-Asian expansion continued through to all proceeding Asian Awards. The 7th Asian Awards will take place on May 5, 2017 in London.
Contents
History
The Asian Awards, an annual awards ceremony founded by businessman Paul Sagoo through his Lemon Group company. The awards also support charities through the event.
Past awards
The 1st Asian Awards took place on 26 October 2010 and was hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe. 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. The 2010 Peoples Choice Award, voted entirely by the public, was won by Sachin Tendulkar. On the night itself, images of all winners were broadcast in Times Square.
The 2nd Asian Awards was again hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe on 18 October 2011. The 2011 Asian Awards featured a presentation of The Lifetime Achievement Award that was presented to Asha Bhosle in addition Lord Coe presented a Guinness World Record for Most Recorded Artist of all time at over 11,000 recordings. 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
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.
The 3rd Asian Awards was hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe on 16 April 2013. The event was opened by Founder Paul Sagoo and followed by a keynote speech from the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne. 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. In addition to the winners, other notable guests in attendance included Peter Andre, Princess Michael of Kent, Preeya Kalidas, Colin Jackson, Tasmin Lucia-Khan, Elen Rivas and Beverley Knight. 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.
The 4th Asian Awards was hosted by Nikki Bedi on 4 April 2014. The event was opened by Founder Paul Sagoo who commented on the continued pan-Asian expansion.
In addition to the winners, other notable guests in attendance included Zayn Malik, Simon Hughes, Preeya Kalidas, Jeremy Hunt (politician), Tasmin Lucia-Khan, Amy Willerton, Nitin Ganatra, Nina Wadia, Amol Rajan, Gurinder Chadha and Naughty Boy. Jackie Chan was given the Fellowship award and friend of the late Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada was honoured with the Founders Award which was presented by Hollywood actor Idris Elba.
The 5th Asian Awards was hosted by previous Asian Awards winner Gok Wan on 17 April 2015. The event was opened by Founder Paul Sagoo followed by the cast of Bend It Like Beckham the Musical who performed a song from the musical. The event was headlined by the British Asian Trust.
In addition to the winners, other notable guests in attendance included Gary Linekar, Preeya Kalidas, Gurinder Chadha, Tasmin Lucia-Khan, Mila Kunis, Nitin Ganatra, Meera Syal, Ozwald Boateng, Colin Jackson, Adil Ray, Kelly Hoppen, Rishi Rich, Russell Peters, Paul Chowdhry, Shabana Azmi, Amar Bose and Naughty Boy. The late founder of the Bose Corporation, Amar Bose was honoured with the Founders Award which was received by his daughter Maya Bose.
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, Founder, Paul Sagoo commented (through social media) on the lack of TV coverage from the British television networks.
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.
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.
In addition to the winners, other notable guests in attendance included Hollywood actress Lindsay Lohan, footballer Jamie Vardy, Keith Vaz, Manish Bhasin, Emeli Sandé, Sanjeev Bhaskar, London Mayoral candidates Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan, Nitin Ganatra, Gurinder Chadha and Alex Reid (fighter). Mother Teresa was honoured with the Founders Award which was accepted by her closest living relative Agi Bojaxhiu.
1st Awards
The following were recipients at the 1st Asian Awards.
2nd Awards
The following were recipients at the 2nd Asian Awards.
3rd Awards
The following were recipients at the 3rd Asian Awards.
4th Awards
The following were recipients at the 4th Asian Awards which took place on 4 April 2014.
5th Awards
The following were recipients at the 5th Asian Awards which took place on 17 April 2015.
6th Awards
The following were recipients at the 6th Asian Awards which took place on 8 April 2016.