Eastern Eye ACTA 2019 Award Winners Announced

• Eastern Eye Arts Culture & Theatre Awards celebrate the best of British Asian talent.
• Big winners include Paul Chowdhry, Naughty Boy, Nitin Ganatra, Shobna Gulati and Mandip Gill.
• Categories cover excellence in Music, TV, Film, Theatre, Comedy, Literature, Dance, Photography and Visual Arts.

Friday 21^st June, London – The fourth Eastern Eye Arts, Culture & Theatre Awards (ACTAs) winners have been revealed at tonight’s glittering gala awards night at the May Fair Hotel, London. The evening was hosted by award-winning broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake.

The ACTAs celebrate diverse talent in the arts and entertainment, with categories spanning a wide range of disciplines and showcasing a world of talent. The list of winners for 2019 were another eclectic mix of popular household names and critically acclaimed emerging talents who excel in their respective fields.

Leading the charge of 2019’s winners, the Theatre categories saw some notable triumphs for EastEnders favourite Nitin Ganatra, crowned Best Actor for theatre production ‘End of the Pier’ and Coronation Street actress Shobna Gulati who picked up Best Actress for her role in ‘Richard II’. Acclaimed theatre director Indhu Rubasingham won Best Director for her adaptation of ‘White Teeth’, the best-selling novel by Zadie Smith, whilst ‘Tartuffe’ by the Royal Shakespeare Company picked up the Best Production.

The hotly contested categories for Comedy and Contemporary Music were won by popular comedian Paul Chowdhry and chart-topping producer Naughty Boy respectively whilst the TV and Film acting categories were awarded to Ash Tandon (‘Bodyguard’) and Priyanga Burford (‘Press’).

Star of hit BBC TV show ‘Dr Who’, Mandip Gill won the People’s Choice Award, as voted for by the public, with the Emerging Artist Award going to Antonio Aakeel, star of independent British comedy film ‘Eaten by Lions’.

Amit Roy, Editor-at-Large, Eastern Eye and Chairman of the ACTA judging panel said: “Our winners at this year’s ACTAs are another strong group of talented British Asian artists who have had exceptional success with their respective work in the last 12 months. It is heartening to see the depth of creative talent within the South Asian community and we are delighted to have another list of winners which showcase some of the best of what our community has to offer.

Diversity remains a vital issue in the creative arts and the British Asian artistic fraternity continues to make a huge contribution to the wealth – financial and spiritual – generated by the UK’s creative industries.”

Stars who have attended the ACTAs have included Anita Rani, Meera Syal, Anoushka Shankar, Sacha Dhawan, Dr Ranj Singh, George Alagiah and this year’s event proved another memorable occasion with several stars from screen and stage attending the evening to celebrate the success of well-known stars and emerging talents from the British Asian community.

For more information please visit http://www.actas.co.uk/

ACTA 2019 Finalists

Winners are highlighted As Underlined

Eastern Eye Award for Arts

• Bharti Kher for The Intermediary Family
• Matthew Krishanu for The Sun Never Sets
• The Singh Twins for Splendours of the Subcontinent

Eastern Eye Award for Dance

• Mavin Khoo for Man to Monk
• Seeta Patel for Not Today’s Yesterday
• Sonia Sabri for Virago

Eastern Eye Award for Literature

• Amit Dhand for City of Sinners
• Gautam Malkani for Distortion
• Preti Taneja for We That Are Young

Eastern Eye Award for Photography

• Nitin Sachania for Breastfeeding in Public Places
• Ram Shergill for Exoskeleton, curated by Daen Palma Hus
• Suki Dhanda for Race, Place and Diversity by the Seaside

Eastern Eye Award for Comedy

• Imran Yusuf for Saint, Sinner, Sufi
• Mawaan Rizwan for Juice
• Paul Chowdhry for Live Innit
• Tez Ilyas for Teztify

Eastern Eye Award for Best Presenter

• Bobby Friction (aka Paramdeep Sehdev) for Pump up the Bhangra: The Sound of Asian Britain
• Nadiya Hussain for Nadiya’s Family Favourites
• Rana Mitter for Chinese Characters

Eastern Eye Award for Best Production

• Dishoom! by Rifco Theatre Company
• Tartuffe by the Royal Shakespeare Company
• Three Sat Under the Banyan Tree by Tara Arts and Polka Theatre

Eastern Eye Award for Best Director

• Indhu Rubasingham for White Teeth
• Iqbal Khan for Tartuffe
• Pravesh Kumar for Dishoom!

Eastern Eye Award for Best Scriptwriter

• Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto for Tartuffe
• Iman Qureshi for The Funeral Director
• Vinay Patel for Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab

Eastern Eye Emerging Artist Award – supported by Arts Council England

• Antonio Aakeel for Eaten by Lions
• Bally Gill for Romeo and Juliet
• Shareefa Energy for Grenfell One Year Later

Eastern Eye Community Engagement Award

• Artists in Residence for their Promoting Creativity in Education programme, founded by Andria Zafirakou
• Manchester Art Gallery for Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition, curated by Hammad Nasar with Kate Jesson
• The Queen’s Gallery for Splendours of the Subcontinent, curated by Emily Hannam and Kajal Meghani

Eastern Eye Award for Traditional Music

• Chandra Chakraborty for excellency in performing Indian classical music
• Sanju Sahai for outstanding achievement in Indian classical music
• Shammi Pithia for About The Elephant

Eastern Eye Award for Contemporary Music

• Naughty Boy for Bungee Jumping
• Niraj Chag for The Captive Queen
• Susheela Raman for Ghost Gamelan

Eastern Eye Award for Theatre, Best Actor

• Asif Khan for Tartuffe
• Nitin Ganatrafor End of the Pier
• Simon Nagra for Tartuffe

Eastern Eye Award for Theatre, Best Actress

• Anjana Vasan for An Adventure
• Shobna Gulati for Richard II
• Sophie Khan Levy for Hanna

Eastern Eye Award for Film, TV & Drama, Best Actor – supported by London Town Group

• Ash Tandon for Bodyguard
• Ray Panthaki for Marcella
• Sid Akbar Ali for Polterheist

Eastern Eye Award for Film, TV & Drama, Best Actress

• Kiran Sonia Sawar for Pure
• Maya Sondhi for Line of Duty
• Priyanga Burford for Press

Eastern Eye People’s Choice Award – supported by Media Hive and voted for by the public

• Hussain Manawer for poetry
• Jameela Jamil for female empowerment
• Jasmin Walia for music
• Mandip Gill for acting
• Nadiya Hussain for TV presenting
• Naughty Boy for music
• Dr Ranj Singh for TV presenting
• Romesh Ranganathan for comedy

Eastern Eye Editor’s Special Award – supported by Eastern Eye

• Aga Khan Centre

Eastern Eye Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Creative Industry – supported by Edwardian Hotels London

• Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith