Ameen Sayani

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ameen Sayani

• His mother was a social activist. From his childhood, Ameen Sayani used to help his mother in all the activities related to journal (Rehber) editing, printing, and publishing from 1940 to 1960.

• At the age of 8, his brother, Hamid Sayani took him to the English section of AIR (All India Radio), Mumbai station. Later, he began his career as a Radio Announcer for English programmes and became a popular broadcaster in English.

• Later, he decided to broadcast in Hindi and was given a chance by Radio Ceylon for the same. In an interview, he stated that
  

  “When Mahatma Gandhi passed away (in 1948), I was totally broken, because he was very close to our family. So I told myself that I am naye bharat ka naya naujawan, and I will now broadcast in Hindi. Unfortunately, I didn’t know Hindi and Urdu too well. When I returned to Mumbai, I told AIR in Mumbai that I wanted to broadcast in Hindi.”

• For his very first programme of Geetmala on Radio Ceylon, he received almost 9,000 appreciation letters all across the country. With his characteristic voice, he became a household name, and also helped AIR to popularize in India.

  

• His polite style of addressing the crowd with “Behno Aur Bhaiyo” is still treated as the most melodious announcement in Radio history.

• He also appeared as an announcer in several movies including Bhoot Bungla, Boxer, Teen Devian, Qatl, and others.

• In the late 1950s or early 1960s, a young man came to his office for an audition, but due to his busy schedule, Ameen couldn’t see him. This young man was none other than Bollywood legend actor Amitabh Bachchan.

  

• From 1960 to 1962, he also worked in the Marketing Department of Tata Oil Mills Limited as a Brand Executive, mainly for toilet soaps: Jai and Hamam.

• He was the first person who initiated the export of Indian radio shows and commercials in 1976. He exported to USA, Canada, England, UAE, Swaziland, Mauritius, South Africa, Fiji, and New Zealand.

• He produced and compered over 54,000 radio programmes and 19,000 spots/jingles since 1951 in India as well as abroad.

• In 2016, after a sabbatical, he announced the promo of Akshay Kumar starrer film, “Rustom.”