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BAFTA 2017 – awards for Adeel Akhtar, ‘Muslims Like US and ‘People Just Do Nothing’ with Asim Chaudhry

BAFTA 2017 – awards for Adeel Akhtar, ‘Muslims Like US and ‘People Just Do Nothing’ with Asim Chaudhry

* Adeel Akhtar wins leading actor BAFTA for ‘Murdered by my Father
* ‘Muslims like us’ – reality BBC 2 TV show wins reality and constructed factual BAFTA
* ‘People just do nothing’ BBC Three programme wins scripted comedy, Asim Chaudhry part of ‘mockumentary’ following fortunes of ‘Kurupt FM’

DIVERSITY got a powerful nod at the BAFTAs last night, with three major awards recognising talent within the Asian community.

Much admired actor Adeel Akhtar won a BAFTA for his role in the Vinay Patel scripted, ‘Murdered by my Father’. Akhtar has been gathering plaudits ever since he featured as a principle character in Chris Morris’ ‘Four Lions’ (2010) and had been nominated for a BAFTA in 2015 for his portrayal of ‘Wilson Wilson’ in Channel 4’s ‘Utopia’.

Adeel Akhtar and Thandie Newton

But it was his transformation from loving, generous father into violent, retributive Dad that has now clinched him the BAFTA.

Reacting to the win on the podium at the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre, he said the character ‘had isolated himself to the point where it became destructive, self-destructive’. Hear him talk more about his role in the post-award interview below.

Muslims like us’ will be a controversial win in some quarters. Some were not comfortable with the people who shared the house together and lived as a unit for the programme. Critics felt it caricatured the Muslim community at a time when few mass media portrayals are positive or constructive. Yet at the same time, it showed that there is a great diversity of opinion within such a faith community and that generalisations are not helpful.

Producer Mobeen Azhar, collecting the award, said the motivation to make such a programme came from a deep-seated desire to produce a more rounded and accurate picture of the community in Britain – ‘to see and hear the conversations that go on within the Muslim community every day’. He said having a diverse team helped to make the programme a reality. He thanked Fatima Salaria, factual commissioning editor for the BBC for her role in getting the idea to the screen.

Mehreen Baig, one of the participants of ‘Muslims Like Us’ makes an impassioned speech at the BAFTA ceremony

Programme participant Mehreen Baig added: ‘There are 1.6 billion Muslims around the world. We knew it was impossible for the 10 of us to represent every single one of them but the message is not confined to any one community, regardless of your race or religion, we need to write our own narrative and stand up for what we believe in – so thank you BBC, love for providing that platform, BAFTA for supporting our show, and my wonderful family who despite the stereotypes have always encouraged me to be a strong woman who has a voice and uses it to make change.”

The talent that is behind ‘Kurupt FM’ didn’t know quite what to do with themselves when they were announced as winners of the best scripted comedy.

The programme is a mocked up documentary following the fortunes of four men behind the pirate radio station based in Hounslow West London. Asim Chaudhry plays stand-out character ‘Chabuddy’ who is something of a lovable rogue and a great champion of the area. Chaudhry was also nominated in male performance in a comedy programme, but lost out to Steve Coogan and his comic creation, Alan Partridge.

Emmerdale’ took home its second BAFTA in two years –it winning in the Soap and Continuing Drama category again. Bhasker Patel is one of the leading characters in the long-running soap based around a rural community.

Elsewhere the drama ‘Damilola: Our Loved Boy’ won two awards – Wunmi Mosaku took the best supporting actress BAFTA, while writer Levi David Addai, the award for Single Drama.

For the full list of winners, see http://www.bafta.org/television/tv-2017

Pictures courtesy of BAFTA

Adeel Akhtar wins Leading Actor BAFTA

‘People Just Do Nothing’ – Post Award interview

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Written by Asian Culture Vulture