Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Awards (Actas) 2026 – artist Sir Anish Kapoor wins top prize…
We look back at the evening…see our short interviews on Instagram – a longer version will be out on YouTube later…full list of winners at the bottom
IT’S rare in bringing so many different creatives together for just one evening under one roof.
The Eastern Eye Arts Culture and Theatre Awards (Actas) are different – it can also be something of a family affair.
Sir Anish Kapoor, who won the Oustanding Contribution to the Creative Industries, the top award of the evening, collected his award and brought his wife Omaima Boumoussaoui and their daughter onto the stage for pictures. It is highly doubtful that the Actas will be the only prize he receives this year – his latest and most prominent London show in virtually decade is an absolute triumph – a review (following on from our reel) will be out later this week. Anish Kapoor is on at the Hayward Gallery until October 18 – so no excuse!
The parents of Raj Ghatak – the winner of the Best Actor stage award – collected on his behalf. He was performing that evening and could not receive it in person. He sent a video message and compere Nihal Arthanayake quizzed Dr Ghatak senior on what his reaction was when the young Raj declared his ambition to be an actor – Dr Ghatak said he came from a line of medical practitioners and Raj did train to be an osteopath (something he told us when we spoke to him about ‘The Producers’) and his mother explained that he was passionate from a young age and she was impressed by the way the theatre looked after the welfare of a young aspirant.
Arthananayke also told winners that they would be asked a single question and that he would keep hold of the microphone (to keep to a strict timetable) – but that didn’t last, when faced with Chandra Chakraborty – the winner of the Music (traditional) category – in a sari – he graciously let go and only realised when she said she went into classical music to give women a voice…to a ringing set of applause.
There was a sense on the evening that the baton of creativity must be passed on and there were several jokes about Asian parents being horrified that their children wanted a ‘career’ in the Arts… yes, dear, you will grow out of it or get fed up of being poor.
Despite these sometimes stereotypical and somewhat obvious comic homilies – the Actas do help to spotlight talent and achievement in a sector where money is tight and opportunities to entry are beset with practical issues of how to make a living and continue and grow…
Actor winner Shobu Kapoor highlighted this in our chat with her on the sidelines…more of that in our longer YouTube video. Follow us on socials to know when it is out or subscribe to our YouTube channel and make sure you click 🛎 – see you all soon there!
See our short interview Reel below – Aasiya Shah, Shobu Kapoor, Monisha Rajesh, Nitin Ganatra…
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaI51I-ug4E
Amd compere Nihal has something to say about Diversity…
https://www.instagram.com/p/DaJJRoGOYex
Winners on the evening
Sir Anish Kapoor – Outstanding Contribution to the Creative Industries…
Arti Shah and James Hameed who play Paddington in ‘Paddington The Musical’ won the Trailblazer award
Naz Shah, Labour MP won the Editors’ award for her memoir, ‘Honoured: Surivival, Strength and My Path to Politics’
The British Museum won the Community Engagement Award for its exhibition, ‘Ancient India: Living Traditions’
Raj Ghatak won Best Actor for his portrayal of Carmen Ghia in the stage version of Mel Brooks’ classic musical, ‘The Producers’
Shobu Kapoor won Best Theatre Actress for her role in the play, ‘Sweetmeats’.
Nitin Ganatra took home the Best Actor Film, TV & Drama award for his role in the film ‘Apnas’
Aasiya Shah won the Best Actress in Film, Tv & Drama for her portrayal of a Laila, in the ITV drama series ‘Believe Me‘ about prolific sex offender, taxi driver John Worboys.
Anoushka Shankar triumphed in the Contemporary Music category
Ameet Chana was presented with the Best Director for his helming of theatre show, ‘Surinderella’
Amina Khayyam won for Best Dance with her production
Pravesh Kumar, the artistic director of Rifco Theatre, won the Scriptwriting award for the same production.
Chandra Chakraborty was presented with the Best Music Traditional award
Kavi Pau, a composer and musician, took home took home the Emerging Artist
Nikki Bedi, who has a BBC Radio show, was given the Best Presenter award
Imran Mahmood won the Crime Fiction prize – ‘Finding Sophie‘
Rana Dasgupta received the History Book award for ‘After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order‘ – he spoke to us on the sidelines after and will be in our YouTube video…
Henry Noltie won the Art prize for his work, ‘Flora Indica: Recovering the Lost Stories of Indian Botanical Art’
The awards were hosted at the May Fair Hotel in London on Friday, June 26.
