Sunny Pawar, ‘Lion’ actor, steals show at The Asian Awards 2017 (gallery pictures)

Actor Om Puri, singer Adnan Sami and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar among those recongised for outstanding contributions…

BOLLYWOOD stars Varun Dhawan and Anupam Kher were among the celebrity guests at The Asian Awards in London last night, toasting the success of ‘little lion’ Sunny Pawar.
The child actor, who is from Mumbai, won the Rising Star award for his performance in the film, ‘Lion’ which also starred Dev Patel.
India’s most famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was also feted and handed a Fellowship Award, which has only been awarded to three other people in The Asian Awards seven-year history. The other recipients are the late Ravi Shankar, actors Sir Ben Kingsley and Jackie Chan.
There was also a special tribute to the actor Om Puri, whose wife Nandita and son, Ishaan were there to collect the outstanding achievement in cinema award.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan attended, as did deputy business mayor, Rajesh Agrawal.
Khan in a media interview laid down a challenge to new British world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua – saying he was ready to box him…but then jokingly retracted. Sadiq’s brother Sid is a boxing coach and heads up the Earlsfield South London ABC Boxing club.
Elsewhere in the entertainment field, Bollywood singer Adnan Sani took away the outstanding achievement in music accolade.
Channel 4 newscaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy collected the outstanding achievement in television award.
Sanjeev Bhaskar was the compere for the awards held at the Hilton Hotel, Park Lane.
Among the other celebrities who attended were Lindsay Lohan, Meera Syal, Greg Rusedski, and Bollywood star Amy Jackson.

Full list of winners
Business Leader of the Year – Ajay Banga (CEO Mastercard)
Philanthropist of the Year – Jack Preger (doctor who set up Calcutta Rescue)
Entrepreneur of the Year – Masayoshi Son (Softbank Group Corporation founder, estimated wealth $20.4bn)
Rising Star of the Year – Sunny Pawar
Outstanding achievement in music – Adna Sami
Outstanding achievement in Cinema – Om Puri
Outstanding achievement in sports – Ding Junhui (Chinese snooker player)
Outstanding achievement in science and technology -Demis Hassabis (founder of DeepMind, a company bought by Google in 2014)
Outstanding achievement in television – Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Outstanding contribution to the community – Sir Harpal Kumar (CEO Cancer Rsearch UK)
Social entrepreneur of the Year – Nisha Dutt (CEO of Intellecap)
Fellowship Award – Sachin Tendulkar

Pictures: Silver Fox

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