Ameen Sayani: THE RADIO LEGEND

When older people think of radio, only one name resounds in their brain — that of the legendary Ameen Sayani

- NOEL KEYMER

I am talking about an era where there was no TV and the only source of entertainment and news was the good old radio.

Most families in India tuned in daily to listen to the BBC, All India Radio or the very popular Radio Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) for their daily dose of ‘infotainment’. And the one voice that used to rule the air waves was the super melodious voice of a man called Ameen Sayani. One listener even remarked that “Ameen had a special magic in his voice which created theatre in your mind.” Being an avid listener of his shows myself, I agree completely.

Ameen Sayani was born in Mumbai, the youngest of three brothers, to Dr Janmohommed, an MBBS doctor, and Mrs Kulsum Sayani, a freedom fighter, a justice of the peace and editor of the magazine Rahber. She was also the proud recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri and Nehru Literacy Award.

Ameen’s eldest brother went on to become an orthopaedic surgeon in the U.S., and his second brother an ad filmmaker, compere and magician. But Ameen was destined for radio, and made his debut at the tender age of 8 as a voice actor in an English play on AIR.

Later, when Ameen auditioned for All India Radio, he was told that as he had traces of an English and Gujarati accent in his voice, he was not suitable for a Hindi announcer. But Sayani was not someone to be so easily deterred from his passion for radio, and proved everyone wrong by going on to become the beloved “King of Radio”!

Other than being an announcer, Ameen has also produced, compered (or spoken for) an awesome 54,000 radio programmes and 19,000 radio spots and jingles!