Being Ameen Sayani: Indian radio's golden voice

Anuradha SenGupta , CNN-IBN
Posted on Jul 20, 2008 at 08:43 | Updated Jul 20, 2008 at 13:01

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For India’s post-independence generation, Ameen Sayani’s voice invokes the joy of Hindi film music with a habit of radio. In that socialist era, Sayani’s programmes and commercials were about little bit of choice.

Anuradha SenGupta: You are going to pre-empt everything I do. You have made a legendary career out of being on this side of the camera.

Ameen Sayani: I must tell you a little secret to my success. I’m a commercial broadcaster who gives people headaches with his programmes and then sells analgesics to get rid of those headaches, and if that doesn’t work then he sells them toothpaste. You know, so that they learn how to grin and bear it.

As far as my broadcasting career goes, I think I was always the wrong man at the right place, kicked around towards various goal posts and somehow it clicked. For instance, I was born in a Kutch family, which had never been to Kutch.

So there were a number of languages clashing with each other in my family. It was mainly Gujarati and a lot of English because my mother had a governess at home and had learnt English. I went to a Gujarati school where I learnt Gujarati for seven years. I could read, write, speak and even think in Gujarati. I counted in Gujarati and I still count in Gujarati. It so happened that my brother, Hamid, became an exceptional English broadcaster.

When I was about seven, he started taking me to All India Radio and started introducing me to English broadcasting. So from the age of seven till 16, I was an English broadcaster. I hadn’t studied Hindi or Urdu extensively. Then around 1950, Radio Ceylon opened an agency. They had a programme production section and Hamid became the programme director.

So I went to him and said give me some work Hamidbhai. Hamid said he was doing some English programme there and I could assist him if I wished. He said, “As for Hindi, we have some excellent Hindi broadcasters. You have been a Gujarati broadcaster and haven’t studied Hindi, so you better go and study first; only then can you be allowed to broadcast in Hindi.

Foray into Hindi broadcasting

It was by fluke that one day that Ameen Sayani was hanging around the Radio Ceylon Bombay studio, which was at St Xavier’s College, that he was asked to read out a commercial and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ameen Sayani: One day a producer called me and said, “I see you sitting at the back bench and ogling at girls everyday. You don’t do any work. I know that you are an English broadcaster and a Gujarati student. Here is a Hindi script. My Hindi broadcaster hasn’t come and he’s giving me tremendous amount of problems. Will you tell somebody to translate it for you into Roman so that you can read it out?” I said, “Srivasatvaji I may not speak great Hindi but I am well-versed with Hindi and Urdu scripts.”

My mother was a shishya (disciple) of Gandhiji and for 20 years, at that time it was only 12, my mother had been editing and publishing a magazine from our house in three scripts. So I read out the commercial for him. I was a naye Bharat ke naya nau jawan (youngster of a new India).

The commercial was for a health drink called Ovaltine so I read it out with great gusto, almost shouting at some points. Srivatavaji blocked his ears and said, “Hold it. What do you think you’re doing? Quarrelling with somebody? We don’t need any pehelwans (body builders) here. Read it like a normal human being.” Then I read it a little normally. Recording went off first class. First take was okayed. Then he asked me to be there every week and be his announcer. That was my first job in Hindi broadcasting - just reading that little commercial. So I asked him, “This is commercial radio, so Srivastavaji I think you will be paying me, right?” He said, “Who’s going to pay you? Don’t be silly.” But he started giving me on tin of Ovaltine every week and to that, I think, I owe my good health in broadcasting - 57 years.

Anuradha SenGupta: You did not consider anything else ever?

Ameen Sayani: I did actually. I had lots of ambitions. I wanted to become a lawyer. I wanted to become a politician and end up as the Prime Minister of India. I always had great ideas of what I would be when I grow up but then all I ever became was a poor ‘common-tator.’

The beginning of Geetmala

Radio Ceylon’s programme Geetmala made Ameen Sayani legendary. A jackpot competition that turned into a countdown show went on to run for 47 years and it made Ameen Sayani’s breezy, chatty style iconic.

Ameen Sayani: I thought if I’m going to be handling such a big programme, I better start brushing up on my Hindi and Urdu. So I started listening to a lot of Hindi songs, which I was listening to for Geetmala in any case. And I started reading poetry. And in my mother’s journal which was called Rehbat, which means guide or path nirdeshak in Hindi, I came across a beautiful couplet by Kabir which said, “Dhai akhar prem ke pade, so pandit hoye.” So I said I have not read any pothis (Hindi literature) but I have a lot of love in my heart. So along with my listeners, who were all trying to learn Hindi at that particular time because India had just become independent, I too learnt my Hindi and Urdu and polished my accent. Took me seven years to get seven years of my Gujarati off my tongue.

Anuradha SenGupta: You’re being very modest because everybody admires the way you use the language and speak it

Ameen Sayani: So many things I read and came across have helped me. For instance, my prayer in broadcasting was a couplet by Ghalib which says,

“Ya rab na who samjhe hai na samjhengey meri baat

De aur dil unko jo na de mujhko zabaan aur

(These people are not going to understand me so please either give them better understanding or give me better communication skills.)”

AIR had started to become a slightly boring kind of a station where people never used to smile when they talked. Even if they were announcing a romantic song, they used to do it in a very serious tone. It sounded like they were saying some great national leader had popped off.

I never had good voice. What I did have was clarity. I had nice collation between my throat and my speech. I had a lot of ambition. I went all out of my way to see that nobody got bored. I did a lot of dhoom dhadaka.

Anuradha SenGupta: You owed your listeners and you ensured that your listeners got value for their time.

Ameen Sayani: Absolutely. They were giving their time so it was my job to give them entertainment. Geetmala was the first countdown show in India and even I didn’t exactly know what the countdown format was going to be like but after the first five weeks, I think the whole of India, including me, was hooked to that format. And it became a kind of a gamble. I created a music ladder, sangeet seedhi, with several rungs. So I used to say so and so song is climbing from number 16 and it’s moving further up. So there was fun and excitement

Anuradha SenGupta: And out of those 45 years, do you remember any songs?

Ameen Sayani: Don’t ask me that. There are so many. But if you ask me about the films that were my favourites because of their songs then I would name Roshan’s Chitralekha and Dada Burman’s Guide.

Anuradha SenGupta: And that point was the golden period of Hindi film music. You could have actually said okay I’ve got some great music to play on Geetmala It could have been pretty straightforward but you didn’t let it be that way. Why is that?

Ameen Sayani: I couldn’t do that because then I wouldn’t be honest to my profession and my life. I could sacrifice my sleep and my family. My family did suffer quite a bit but fortunately I met my wife when she came to work in my office. So we got married and we kept working together. The only thing with my wife was that because we were working together, we hardly conversed with each other. My advice is, never marry a girl who’s in the same profession as you.

TV appearances

Ameen Sayani has worked as an independent producer since the mid 80s and actively furthered the cause of his industry. His collection of interviews is an invaluable archive that still has many takers. Though he did appear in a few films as himself and was a popular host for stage events, his TV appearances were fleeting.

Anuradha SenGupta: You had this prolific career as a radio broadcaster. Why did you not make transition to full time TV broadcast career?

Ameen Sayani: I was not very comfortable with it. I had romanced the radio right from the age of seven and being a slightly faithful person, I should say, I didn’t want to shift anywhere else. TV was a pain in the neck anyway. Because as soon as I would I would sit down there to present a programme, the lightman would say, “Nahi, nahi…light marta hai aapka chashma.” So something or the other would go wrong. In radio, I could handle about 7-10 programmes day but in TV at most one or two programmes a day. So I finally said I’m happy where I am so lets not go into it.

Anuradha SenGupta: I wanted to know about this transition from a person who is chronicling the lives and works of all these greats in the world of music to becoming a legend himself. When and how did this happen and how did you ensure that you managed to remain true to the public despite the friends you made in the industry?

Ameen Sayani: What you said is the basis of a good broadcaster. A good broadcaster must not overshadow the person he is interviewing. He has to lift that person up and get the best out of him. Tease him, nettle him, pull his leg, praise him, go deep into his emotional psyche but never impose yourself on that person. I think that is what my audience appreciated about me. By not interfering with what the interviewee had to speak, I became a representative of the listener and not the world of music.

Anuradha SenGupta: We know you and refer to you as a radio broadcaster, but at heart what you are and what you do is about communication. What do you make of the state of communication today?

Ameen Sayani: I think today unfortunately entire Indian communication is crumbling. I feel there should be a national movement on the part of the government and the people, wherein every phase of life and should be simplified. Five ‘S’ are very important for sanchar (communication). Firstly, it should be sahi. It should be correct. There should be no mistakes in it. Secondly, it should be satya. It should be truthful. Thirdly, it should be spasht, absolutely clear and unambiguous. Fourthly, it should be saral or simple. And lastly, it should be sundar. It must be appealing and attractive. Now unfortunately all our communication is losing out on all these five points because people don’t understand what is happening.

Anuradha SenGupta: Ameen Sayani thank you so much for your time. We wish you all the very best and we hope that you will be proud of the communication you see around you.

Ameen Sayani: I hope so too. I wish and pray that that happens. God bless you.

Anuradha SenGupta: Thank you.

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