Riz Ahmed and Zayn Malik climb up the list for UK’s most influential Asian people
Pakistani-British actor Riz Ahmed and Indian-British star Dev Patel have climbed high up on the new list of the most influential Asian people in Britain, which is topped yet again by Sadiq Khan for a second successive year, reports The Guardian.
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The Night Of star grabbed fourth place on the list, while former One Direction vocalist, Zayn Malik also made it to the same list.
The Power List, compiled by Asian Media Group, is now in its seventh year.
PHOTO: FILE
Shailesh Solanki, executive editor of the GG2 Power List, said: “It’s fantastic to see so much ethnic success in Britain. It’s incredibly important for us to keep recognising and rewarding ethnic achievements in the country.”
“Riz Ahmed has been very outspoken and vociferous about issues of diversity, but it’s important to recognise that [the success of the people on the list] builds on the efforts of previous generations [of actors] like Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar,” he added.
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Solanki said progress had been made in the proportion of women on the list (25%), although he acknowledged that more needed to be done.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan tops the power list, published on Thursday, which features 101 names.
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“He [Khan] started off very well by winning the biggest mandate of any politician in western Europe and I think he’s grown in stature in the last one and a half years,” said Solanki. “He hasn’t shied away from tackling big decisions, taking on Trump and Uber, and his reaction to [the fire at] Grenfell was impressive.”
Ahmed also became the first male actor of Muslim and Asian descent to have won an Emmy award for his performance in the HBO drama The Night Of.
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Patel, who was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor in the film Lion this, climbs more places than Ahmed, and lands on 21st position.
Ahmed while receiving his Emmy thanked his fellow category nominees and Turturro in his acceptance speech, telling his co-star, “It’s been amazing getting to watch you up close, and I share this with you, brother,” reports New York Daily News.
Backstage, the actor touched on the need for more diverse roles and praised Ed Skrein for how he handled the recent Hellboy casting controversy.
“I think what we’re starting to see is more awareness around how beneficial it can be to tell a diverse range of stories and to tell them in a way that’s authentic,” Ahmed told reporters.
“Something that happened recently that I found really, really moving and I really applaud is the British actor Ed Skrein recently kind of turned down a role — it was lucrative role.”
He added, “I know him personally, he’s a great guy and he just felt that he wanted to respect the cultural authenticity of that particular story and that character in Hellboy. So I think when you see examples of that, what we’re seeing is more awareness around this conversation and I think awareness if the first step to real change.”
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Ahmed also pushed for “globalization” of stories and talent, saying, “TV is in particular a global medium. People are streaming shows or watching them all around the world, so hopefully we’re going to see a globalisation of the stories we’re telling and a globalisation of the talent pool.”
Ahmed’s Nasir Khan, on The Night Of, is a Pakistani college student who winds up at Rikers Island after becoming involved in a murder investigation.
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