Winners of the Asian Viewers Television Awards 2015

“Maybe I’ll do a film or two when Ranbir [Kapoor] retires!”

The Asian Viewers Television Awards (AVTA) was held at the Lancaster London Hotel on October 3, 2015, hosted by TV actor Karan Tacker.

The AVTAs are an annual award ceremony honouring the best of Asian Television with the hope of encouraging and inspiring creative individuals to thrive.

For 2015, the show proved to be bigger and better in its second year with an enjoyable evening and new categories being introduced.

Celebrity nominees included TV actors Gautam Rode, Mishkat Varma and Aneri Vajani. Other guests included Lisa Maffia and Romeo from the So Solid Crew and Nitin Ganatra.

Rajan Singh, the founder of the AVTA awards said: “Being in the second year of this concept, the AVTA award winners are determined by the fans, giving viewers the opportunity to recognise and reward excellence within the Asian television community.”

Gautam Rode won best actor at the awards for his work in hit showsSaraswatichandra and Mahakumbh; both shows which he considers ‘special’, particularly Saraswatichandra which was a turning point in his career.

On winning the award, he said: “It’s great to see when what you’re working on is doing well.”

Gautam is currently working on Suryaputra Karn, which comes on Sony TV. He exclusively shared with DESIblitz his experiences of shooting from this new show:

“I just finished the first schedule of Suryaputra Karn in Gujarat and Jhansi. This is my first time doing a mythological show and it is Karn’s point of view to Mahabharat.

“It is an excellent character to play but a difficult one in terms of the language, the clothes, the jewellery and the look.”

When asked how this compares to his previous work, he said: “The language is tough, you have to stick to the lines and you cannot improvise.

“Your responsibility as an actor is greater to do justice to the historical character. People have seen and followed Mahabharat, so you cannot just play the character lightly.

“You have to be there all the time with the character but I am also enjoying the challenge too.”

Gautam also revealed that perhaps movies would be in the pipeline afterSuryaputra Karn.

Karan Tacker returned as a charismatic host for his second year, fresh from just finishing his last hosting stint in The Voice India:

“AVTA feels like home I’ve been attached with from its first year,” said Karan.

Tacker has had a successful television career with soaps like Ek Hazaaron Main Meri Behna Hai and then coming second in season 7 of the Indian Reality Show, Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa.

The famous TV couple, Mishkat Varma and Aneri Vajani, from ‘Nisha aur Uske Cousins’ also made a dazzling entry.

Both of the actors revealed to DESIblitz that they are waiting for big projects to come their way after the success of Nisha aur Uske Cousins.

Mishkat conveyed how he would love to play a negative character with a golden heart like Robin Hood.

He laughed at his comparison of his looks with Ranbir Kapoor: “Maybe I’ll do a film or two when Ranbir retires!”

Aneri said that she liked the idea of shaking a leg on a dance reality show like Nach Baliye or Jhalak Dikhla Jaa.

It was a great night for Star Plus where they won ‘Best Soap’ and ‘Best Channel’, as well as lead actors from their popular TV shows picking up both ‘Best Actor’ and ‘Best Actress’.

Lisa Maffia who presented the award even said she would love to be on Star Plus Now!

Guests were entertained with R&B and soulful punk by Patrick Alan and his band, whilst having delicious food served by Madhus.

SPARKS was the charity being supported. It raises money to fund pioneering children’s medical research, supporting clinicians and scientists in order to find cures and treatments to help the 1 in 30 children born in the UK with a condition that may affect them for life.

Taher Memon, who is the CEO of ethnic marketing consultants limited, won the lifetime achievement award: “My career has spanned 16 years and I feel this is the right platform to get an award.”

When asked how Asian television has changed over his career, he said that content and niche audiences is what has changed the most:

“At that time, it was difficult to come in. Now it’s easy to come in but difficult to survive as a result of competition.”

Regional channel award winners included Zee Punjabi for ‘Best Punjabi Channel’ and NTV for ‘Best Bengali Channel’.

Young guest at the event, Sara said: “Asian television is being much more widely recognised and respected much more.

“We are digressing from the stereotypical view of Asian television being all about saas bahu serials to more realistic shows that even the younger generation can become engrossed in.”

Here is the full list of winners of the Asian Viewers Television Awards 2015:

Best General Entertainment Channel
Star Plus (winner)
ZEE TV
Sony Entertainment Television Asia

Best Music Channel
B4U Music (winner)
Zing
Brit Asia TV

Best News Channel
ABP News (winner)
Aaj Tak
NDTV 24×7

Best Urdu Channel
Hum TV (winner)
ARY Digital
Geo TV
ARY QTV

Best Punjabi Channel
ZEE Punjabi (winner)
PTC Punjabi
Sikh Channel

Best Bengali Channel
NTV (winner)
Star Jalsha
Channel I

Best Male
Gautam Rode (winner)
Parth Samthaan
Karan Patel
Mishkat Varma

Best Female
Divyanka Tripathi (winner)
Sanaya Irani
Jennifer Winget
Aneri Vajani

Best Reality Show
Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa (winner)
Nach Baliye
India’s Got Talent

Best Daily Soap
Yeh Hai Mohabbatein (winner)
Rangrasiya
Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi
Mahakumbh

Best Of British
Britain’s Got Talent (winner)
Desi Rascals
EastEnders

Lifetime Achievement Award
Taher Memon

AVTA has truly promoted the best of Asian television in a global context.

With a once again dazzling event that did not disappoint, one can anticipate that event only getting bigger and better.

Congratulations to all of the winners!