British Asian Media Award 2019 feted to global Asian media pioneers in London

February 7, 2019

LONDON : The inaugural British Asian Media (BAM) Awards saw the media fraternity come together to celebrate and felicitate diversity and campaigns which empower the South Asian media industry.

Journalist and writer Aatish Taseer won the Journalist / Writer of the Year Award for his critically acclaimed columns in The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and The Sunday Times, along with his books, The Way Things Were, Twice Born and Noon.

Accepting the award from Lord Swraj Paul and veteran journalist Ashis Ray, Aatish said: “It is a very emotional moment for me as I started my career at a magazine in Strand, and today I am winning the BAM Awards at the Great Hall in Strand. Through the awards, it is my hope that the Asian media industry keeps UK’s cosmopolitanism alive.”

BAM became the first Asian media award to honour the contribution of the LGBT community. The Director of the London Indian Film Festival Cary Sawhney won the LGBT Champion of the Year for bringing LGBT South Asian cinema into the mainstream. He said: “Thank you for this pioneering award it’s wonderful that mine and others work on diversity equality is being honoured, in an Asian community context.”

Star Plus won the Media Channel of the Year Award by Loknath Mishra, CEO, ICICI Bank UK Plc. Sony Entertainment Television won the Reality Show of the Year for Indian Idol from singer Juggy D.

NDTV 24×7 retained its position as the most trusted Indian news channel by winning BAM’s Indian News Channel of the Year Award.

The Media Impact of the Year Award went to Tony Lit MBE; and the Diversity Champion of the Year went to the head of Sky Multicultural Debarshi Pandit.

Felicitating South Asian marketing campaigns – TRS Foods won the Marketing Campaign of the Year, Westmill’s Spread the Joy with Tolly Boy campaign won the Charity / Community Campaign of the Year and Southall Travel won the Marketing Brand of the Year. The Advertising Agency of the Year Award was won by Here and Now 365.

Recognising the importance of emerging technologies, for the first time OTT platforms were recognised with Eros Now winning.