Ameen Sayani (21 December 1932 – 20 February 2024) was an Indian radio announcer. He achieved fame and popularity across the Indian subcontinent when he presented his Binaca Geetmala program of hits over the airwaves of Radio Ceylon.[1] He was one of the most imitated announcers. His style of addressing the audience with "Behno aur Bhaiyo " (meaning "sisters and brothers") as against the traditional "Bhaiyo aur Behno" is still treated as an announcement with a melodious touch. He had produced, compered (or provided voice-overs for) over 54,000 radio programmes and 19,000 spots/jingles since 1951.
Ameen Sayani was introduced to All India Radio, Bombay, by his brother Hamid Sayani. Ameen participated in English programmes there for ten years.
Later, he helped popularise All India Radio in India. Sayani was also a part of various movies throughout the years like Bhoot Bungla, Teen Devian, Boxer, and Qatl. He appeared in all of these movies in the role of an announcer in some event.
Sayani assisted his mother, Kulsum Sayani, in editing, publishing and printing a fortnightly journal for neo-literates, under the instructions of Mahatma Gandhi. The fortnightly, RAHBER (1940 to 1960), was simultaneously published in the Devnagri (Hindi), Urdu and Gujarati scripts – but all in the simple "Hindustani" language promoted by Gandhi.
It was this grounding in simple communication that helped him in his long career of commercial broadcasting, and culminated in his being awarded the "Hindi Ratna Puraskaar" by the prestigious Hindi Bhavan of New Delhi in 2007.
One little known fact about him is that he worked in the marketing Department of Tata Oil Mills Ltd. during 1960–62 as Brand Executive – mainly looking after their toilet soaps: Hamam and Jai.
Between All India Radio (from 1951), AIR's Commercial Service (from 1970) and various foreign stations (from 1976), Sayani produced, compered (or spoke for) over 54,000 radio programmes and 19,000 spots/jingles. (The fact is recorded in the Limca Book of Records.)
Some of the better known radio shows produced (mainly for consumer product clients):
CIBACA (formerly BINACA) GEETMALA: broadcast from 1952 – mainly over Radio Ceylon, and later over Vividh Bharati (AIR) – for a total of over 42 years. It was again revived after a gap of 4 years, and was aired over the National Network of Vividh Bharati for 2 years as COLGATE CIBACA GEETMALA.
S. KUMARS KA FILMI MUQADDAMA and FILMI MULAQAAT: over AIR and Vividh Bharati for 7 years. Re-commenced, after a decade, on Vividh Bharati for a year.
SARIDON KE SAATHI: 4 years. (AIR's first sponsored show.)
BOURNVITA QUIZ CONTEST (in English): 8 years. (Took over from his brother and guru, Hamid Sayani, after his death in 1975.)
SHALIMAR SUPERLAC JODI: 7 years.
MARATHA DARBAR shows: SITARON KI PASAND, CHAMAKTAY SITARAY, MEHEKTI BAATEN, etc. : 14 years.
SANGEET KAY SITARON KI MEHFIL : 4 years – and still running (in 2014). (The format comprises interviews and musical career sketches of top singers, composers and lyricists; syndicated to various radio stations in India and abroad for their commercial clients.)
Sayani also produced a 13-episode radio series in the form of plays based on actual HIV/AIDS cases – including interviews with eminent doctors and social workers. (The series – entitled Swanaash – was commissioned by All India Radio, and its audio cassettes have been acquired by many NGOs for their fieldwork.)
Audio communication on compact discs (and earlier on LPs and cassettes)[edit]
After producing several audio features on cassettes, LPs and CDs, Sayani was producing (for Saregama India Ltd) an unusual retrospective of his flagship radio show Geetmala on CDs. The series is called "GEETMALA KI CHHAON MEIN", of which 40 volumes (in packs of five CDs each) have already been produced and released. The volumes have been well appreciated in India and abroad.[citation needed]
Sayani pioneered the export of Indian radio shows and commercials from 1976 onwards. He exported to the USA, Canada, England, the UAE, Eswatini, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand. In addition, he compered several shows directly for radio stations abroad.
Sayani compered over 2,000 stage functions of all sorts in India, including musical variety shows, beauty contests, fashion shows, award functions, film silver jubilee functions, the International Film Festival closing session (in Delhi), concerts, seminars, workshops, and trade presentations. He also compered stage shows abroad – in the US, Canada, the UK, South Africa, the UAE, the Netherlands and the West Indies.
