Asian Art Awards – Award Ceremony at MOXY Fountainbridge

Members of the Scottish Indian community were prominent among the winners of the 2025 Asian Art Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe. The awards have been running since 2014 and exist to bring Asian artists together at the Fringe and reward the best of them.

90 shows participated in 2025, up significantly from 55 in 2024.

The highly acclaimed “Kanpur: 1857”, written and co-performed by Edinburgh-based Niall Moorjani and which showed at the Pleasance, won the award for Outstanding Production.

Set at the time of the Kanpur uprising in India, this new play “comically satirises contemporary conflicts around gender, colonial violence, and making art in times of crisis”. The award was collected by the production’s musician, Sodhi.

Shows by Sanjay Lago  (Love me Like a Chai Tea Latte [wearing the colourful shirt]) and Dance Ihayami, with their show Dansa Rickshaw, also won awards for Highly Commended performances (i.e. Runners Up). Sanjay is Scottish Indian while Dance Ihayami is “Scotland’s Indian dance company”. Like Sodhi, Sanjay is from Glasgow (“Ibrox, don’t judge me” he says).

Hahaha-Hamlet from Hong Kong, which played at the Paradise Green venue on George IV Bridge, won the award for Outstanding Show.

The award reviewers simply loved this “captivating reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic tale, blending original musical with dark humour [..and..] intertwining the struggles of contemporary Hongkongers with Hamlet’s timeless tale”.

Energetic, inventive and incredibly affecting with some reviewers moved to tears as the tales of Hamlet and Hong Kong coincided at the end. The whole cast were in attendance to receive the award [red and black t-shirts under their clothes] and they were delighted.

Mayuri Bhandari of the Anti “Yogi” took home the award for Outstanding Female while Jeremy Rafal won Outstanding Male for The Boy from Bantay “a heartwarming journey of growth and self-discovery”.

Mayuri was in attendance with her percussionist Neel Agrawal while Jeremy sent a video message to the audience. Both shows were hugely popular. At the Anti “Yogi” the audience were invited to “Join Mayuri Bhandari and Kali, the Goddess of Death every day as they navigate the absurdities of Western Yoga culture. Liberation, not Lululemon!” 

The Outstanding Youth Performance was won by the show “Landscape of the Other Shore” from Shenzhen University  which was also inspired by another European classic: Géricault’s painting and Georg Kaiser’s play The Raft of the Medusa.

The Asian Arts Special Award was shared between GENDAI TOKYO  and Up-cycle Music  by Creative Art of Korea. GENDAI TOKYO had a simply incredible laser show playing at WU Asia Pacific three times per night. Everyone who sees it simply loves it.

Up-cycle Music is a “response to climate change from a uniquely artistic perspective. They use waste to make music – cellos from abandoned equipment from rural areas, stringed instruments of thrown away plastic toys – and compose piano songs based on the characteristics of endangered animals, to ask vital questions about the climate crisis”.

Lyndsey Jackson from the Fringe presented the awards along with Richard Lewis and Chelsea Zhou of Asian Art Fund Scotland, the charity which runs the Asian Art Awards.

Winners – 2025 Asian Art Awards

Outstanding Show

Winner: Hahaha–Hamlet – Chai Wan Rabble (Hong Kong)

Highly Commended: 1Shoulder Pad: Galaxy Train, Japanese Musical Theatre (Japan)

Highly Commended: Practice of Zen – Theatre Ronin (Hong Kong)

Outstanding Production

Winner: Kanpur: 1857 – Niall Moorjani Storyteller and Pleasance (Scotland / India)

Highly Commended: 1457, The Boy at Rest – Poem and Star / Korean Season by GCC & AtoBiz (Korea)

Highly Commended: Relaxing and Balancing – Ying Yang – On/Off Theatre (Hong Kong)

Highly Commended: The Time Painter – ACC, ACCF, Haddangse / Korean Season by GCC and AtoBiz (Korea)

Outstanding Male Performer

Winner: Jeremy Rafal, The Boy from Bantay (Philippines / USA)

Highly Commended: Zheng Xiaofan Dance Theatre, PERSONALLERY 4.0 (China)

Highly Commended: Kumar Muniandy – Second Class Queer (Malaysia / UK / Germany)

Highly Commended: Eden Choi – Proust Effect (Korea) [1]

Highly Commended: Sanjay Lago – Love me Like a Chai Tea Latte (Scotland / India)

Outstanding Female Performer

Winner: Mayuri Bhandari – The Anti “Yogi” (USA / India)

Highly Commended: Dansa Rickshaw – Dance Ihayami (Scotland / India)

Highly Commended: Elisabeth Gunawan and KISS WITNESS – Stampin’ in the Graveyard (UK / Indonesia)

Highly Commended: Afreena Islam-Wright – Lucky Tonight! (UK / Bangladesh)

Highly Commended: Chi-An Chen – Sole to Soul (Taiwan, China)

Outstanding Young Performer [Winner] 3

Winner: Shenzhen University School of Arts 201 Theatre Company – The Landscape of the Other Shore (China)

Highly Commended: Creative Group SSAK / Korean Season by GCC & AtoBiz – Dream Space (Korea)

Highly Commended: Jasmine Thien – I Dream in Colour (UK / China)

Asian Arts Special Award – Joint Award (two winners)

GENDAI TOKYO (Japan) and

Up-cycle Music, Creative Art (Korea)