Sangakkara graces Asian Awards ceremony in London

Bollywood Badshah Shahrukh Khan will lead a galaxy of stars from the Asian diaspora across the world as some of the world’s most iconic names from showbiz and business are set to descend upon London on Friday. Asian clout will be in full show in the city which is hosting the prestigious Asian Awards.

The 700 strong guest-list will include cricketers, actors, models, artists and the who’s who of the Asian community born or with direct family origins in Asia including India, China, Pakistan and Japan.

Those who are expected to walk the red carpet are Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara, actress Mila Kunis, One Direction band member Zayn Malik, footballer Gary Linekar, Burberry model Neelam Gill, actress and novelist Meera Syal, business leaders Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja, director Gurinder Chadha and actress Preeya Kalidas.

Hosted this year by TV personality Gok Wan, the awards will take place at the London landmark - Grosvenor House Hotel.

Previous winners of the awards include Sir Ben Kingsley, Jackie Chan, Sachin Tendulkar, Bruce Lee, Sir David Tang, Amitabh Bachchan, Freddie Mercury and Ahmed Kathrada who was jailed alongside Nelson Mandala on Robben Island in the fight against apartheid.

The founder of the awards Paul Sagoo told TOI “Our fifth awards ceremony on Friday is going to be massive. We have global superstars like Shah Rukh Khan, Zayn Malik and Mila Kunis attending”.

He told TOI “The Asian community has definitely grown. Asian business leaders like Anand Mahindra and celebrities like Zayn Malik have helped to highlight the positive influence Asians are having across the world, which is further demonstrated by powerful business leaders like the Hinduja brothers and Ratan Tata, who won an Asian Award in 2010”.

“Dr Amar Bose, founder of the Bose Corporation, who is this year winning our Founders Award, is also an excellent example of how Asian people have had a tremendous impact on the world we live in. He invented noise cancelling technology and literally changed the way we listen to music and sound,” Sagoo added.

According to Sagoo, the awards celebrate excellence across Pan Asia.

“We intend to continue recognising the very best in Pan Asian achievements and hope to do so for many years to come. On average most winners come from India, which highlights how strong India is within Asia. However, the Chinese are excelling across all fields too not just in business,” Sagoo said.

He added “Ideally we would like to travel with the awards, so take them to America, or perhaps even India one year. The Pan-Asian, cross sector nature of the awards makes them incredibly unique. Each winner is great in his or her own right and there is no competition in the room as such”.