One needs no introduction to the name Ameen Sayani. If one grew up in the good old days when radio dominated the media landscape, one would be familiar with “Namaskar behenon aur bhaiyyon, aapka dost Ameen Sayani bol raha hoon (Salutations to sisters and brothers, your friend Ameen Sayani is speaking)”, that struck a chord far and wide across the world.
An endearing voice, he ruled the radio and was the reason for the success of Binaca Geetmala, that ran starting 1952 to 1988 on Radio Ceylon. Then, Binaca Geetmala, which became Cibaca Geetmala shifted to All India Radio’s (AIR) Vividh Bharati Service in the late 1980s, which ran till the mid 1990s, stated a media report.
The legendary radio presenter breathed his last on February 20, 2024.
Sayani became a commercial broadcaster by ‘default’, reveals his son Rajil, partner, Sayani Radiotel Advertising in a conversation with Storyboard18.
Ameen’s first break was reading the commercial for Ovaltine in a program called ‘Ovaltine Phulwari’ (produced by Balgovind Shrivastav, employee at Radio Ceylon). This was aired on Radio Ceylon in 1951. Thereafter, since Binaca Geetmala became such a hit, other brands too started approaching him. One of them was Saridon.
“His USP was integrating the commercial with the bulk of the program. His idea was when someone tunes into the program in the beginning, he or she should not be able to switch off till the end. So, he was probably the only one who used to tell clients including Binaca and Cibaca, “Don’t use your full commercial entitlement.” If it is three minutes 60 seconds, use three minutes or slightly less. So effectively, the entire program becomes an advertisement for the product,” explained Rajil.
Edited excerpts:
How did Ameen Sayani’s association with Binaca Geetmala begin? How did the programme change radio advertising in India?
What happened was, on Radio Ceylon there was a program called ‘Binaca Hit Parade’. It was being done by someone who was called ‘Happy Go Lucky Greg’ (Greg Roskowski) on Radio Ceylon. That program, I think was being produced and recorded and handled in Ceylon. But the sponsorship was being handled through Radio Advertising Services and Radio Enterprises Pvt. Ltd in Bombay.
Just to give you some background on Radio Advertising Services and Radio Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. There were two or three gentlemen who came together to create these two firms.
Radio Advertising Services (of Ceylon) was buying media on radio on behalf of clients for Radio Ceylon only. Radio Enterprises Pvt. Ltd was the firm which put together the programs to feed Radio Ceylon.
Binaca Hit Parade was a popular program which got about 300 to 500 letters a week. At that point of time, the payment for ads was not allowed in foreign currency. You could not send it abroad from India. So all the clients were either foreign clients or associates of Indian clients who were abroad. So, the money was only coming from abroad to Radio Ceylon. One of those clients was Ciba Geigy, a chemical and pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland.
Apart from toothpaste etc, they were into other products. At that point they wanted to promote Binaca products. Hence, they got the ‘Binaca Hit Parade’.
Binaca Hit Parade was popular but it got about 400-500 letters. Hence, the client said that they want to get into the heartland of India to expand the market, and hopefully that will expand their market size and therefore their reach.
At that time, film songs were banned on All India Radio (AIR). They were then broadcast only from Radio Ceylon.
Since the client Ciba Geigy wanted to expand, they said, ‘Let’s try it in Hindi’. Word was sent to the production agency i.e. Radio Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. Somebody came to the room which was full of producers and said, “There’s this client who wants to produce a program that will be a half an hour. Our budget is 25 rupees for a person to research the songs, write the script, present the program over editing and then we will send it off to Radio Ceylon.”
Binaca Hit Parade was a popular program which got about 300 to 500 letters a week. So, at that time there is also one more thing to keep in mind. At that point of time, the payment for ads was not allowed in foreign currency. You could not send it abroad from India. So all the clients were either foreign clients or associates of Indian clients who were abroad. So, the money was only coming from abroad to Radio Ceylon. One of those clients was Ciba Geigy, a chemical and pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland.
Rs 25 was apparently too small for all the other producers who were already established. The only person who put up his hand was Ameen Sayani. He got the assignment and as he has often said, he used all the experience that he had and guidance from his brother Hamid to produce the first show and send it out. They were praying that if they don’t get 300 to 400 letters, it’s okay if to get a 100 letters. But what happened was in the first week itself, they got 7,000 letters. And then the popularity just kept growing till they were raking in 65,000 letters a week for every show.
I think eight songs were played in the half an hour show on a certain basis. But the listeners had to write in and rank the songs according to their choice. The office came up with one final rank and any listener whose rank matched with the one created by the office then got an award. It was one basic cash award of say what 500 for example divided by the number of listeners who matched the ranking of the office
Since this was a competition, at least three weeks of letters had to be kept in the office at any point of time in case a question came up.
Since it was getting too difficult to handle so much mail, the client decided to shift it into the top of the pops chart and make it a hit parade but in Hindi.
As far as the brand is concerned, Ciba sold the brand Binaca to Reckitt and Coleman at one point. So the name of the toothpaste itself was changed from Binaca to Cibaca and therefore the program was then called Cibaca Geetmala instead of Binaca Geetmala. I think it happened in 1986.
The format remained same, presenter remained same, station remained same. Only the brand name changed.
Ameen Sayani was never employed by All India Radio. He started his broadcasting career as a participant of children’s programs on All India Radio but in English.
He was independently working with the two firms on a contract basis. Radio Ceylon was the broadcasting authority. Binaca Geetmala was initiated on December 3, 1952.
As you had stated, in 1952, Union Minister Bal Krishna Viswanath Keskar put a ban on film music and allowed only classical musicals to play. How do you think AIR’s ban on film music affected the popularity of radio in India? How did Ameen Sayani keep radio thriving through such a period?
People were upset about the ban, because film music was popular. It was the only source of entertainment then, and it was accessible everywhere.
The advantage of Radio Ceylon was that it was on shortwave. Which means it could be heard all across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, etc., and I think even in parts of China and Russia, and also on the east coast of Africa. I’ve met somebody who’d heard it in Germany. It had a very wide footprint, and that too helped make it popular. There were other programs as well, but Binaca Geetmala was the most popular.
Radio Ceylon employed the tactic of using Hindi as a language. How did the language help radio and advertising in India?
I am not sure if Radio Ceylon strategically deployed Hindi. They probably were not too familiar with Hindi, Urdu etc. They were basically depending on what was being fed to them in two areas.
One is the sponsored programs coming in. Second, Radio Ceylon in the earlier years imported announcers from India to help them create their broadcasts and run the programming area.
There are some key names of people who were sent there to help them out. One was Vijay Kishore Dubey who later became a part of HMV (His Master’s Voice). He suggested various formats and made sure that the library increased in size, probably bigger than any other library of Hindi music. His language was Hindustani. So, Hindustani then because of that started getting popular. It’s only afterwards that Ameen Sayani came up with Binaca Geetmala.
How did your father come into advertising, and could you name the brands he was associated with? What was the reception like?
Since he was always a commercial broadcaster by ‘default’ for many years, he has said that his first break was reading the commercial for Ovaltine, in a program called Ovaltine Phulwari. This was aired on Radio Ceylon in 1951. Thereafter, ever since Binaca Geetmala became a hit, other brands also started approaching him. One was Saridon. He did a programme for Afghan Snow (beauty cream), for Maratha Darbar Agarbatti, etc. He also did a programme called ‘VT ka Hungama’ for five years.
Clients reached out because of his popularity. He was very particular about getting the message across clearly and concisely. His USP was integrating the commercial with the programme such that he seamlessly went from one to the other and back.
Since he was always a commercial broadcaster by ‘default’ for many years, he has said that his first break was reading the commercial for Ovaltine, in a program called Ovaltine Phulwari. This was aired on Radio Ceylon in 1951. Thereafter, ever since Binaca Geetmala became a hit, other brands also started approaching him. One was Saridon. He did a programme for Afghan Snow (beauty cream), for Maratha Darbar Agarbatti, etc. He also did a programme called ‘VT ka Hungama’ for five years.
His idea was that when someone tunes into the programme in the beginning, he should not be able to switch off till the end. He was probably the only one who used to tell clients, including Binaca and Cibaca, “Don’t use your full air time. If it is three minutes and 60 seconds, use three minutes or slightly less.”
The reason being that if you put too many commercials, it will put off the audience. But if you have fewer commercials and weave them into the script of the programme, it will seem like one organic thing. So effectively, the entire programme becomes an advertisement for the product.
How did he happen to host the Bournvita Quiz contest?
My uncle Hamid Sayani used to host the Bournvita Quiz Contest for some time. I believe it was a live event at first, and then it came on the radio. But, he passed away in 1975. The way the programme was recorded for the radio was that all the quizzing was done at the beginning of the year. The finalist was chosen at the beginning of the year. But the episodes were broadcast weekly over the rest of the year.
Because only the quizzing bit was recorded in the beginning, each week, the opening and closing for the programme that was to go that week was recorded, and sent to AIR.
When my uncle passed away, my father took over. He was already helping him with questions etc. He took over the opening and closing, and then packaged the programmes for the entire year. Since he was popular, he took over the programme later, and then continued for eight years, I think.
When he joined the radio industry, what were the main challenges he came across, and how did he overcome them?
First, radio was a new medium. So one had no idea what the response would be. Second challenge basically for Ameen Sayani more than anybody else was he came from a background of Gujarati and English.
Hence, there was Gujarati and English in his ‘lehja’ (accent). So, when he went to AIR for an audition, he was rejected on this ground. His challenge was to get rid of the accent in order to sound more acceptable. The challenge was also to be able to communicate in as simple a language as possible so that everybody could understand. The challenge also was to maintain clarity because the kind of (technological) quality we have now was not available then.
How has radio advertising evolved since your father’s era? What were the pros and cons then compared to now?
The pros were that there was no other medium, besides print. Plus, the radio has the advantage of playing in the background while you’re doing something else.
So effectively, radios were on in kitchens when housewives were cooking. The radio was on when people were working in the fields and factories. Anybody could listen to it any time. Now, I feel there’s too much fragmentation, there’s too much going on to focus on one thing.
Anything more you would like to say about your dad’s contribution to advertising?
He was also a co-founder of ASCI (Advertising Standards Council of India), which sort of oversaw the quality of advertising. He was also one of the co-founders of the Radio and TV Advertising Practitioners Association that dealt with radio issues. They held various workshops, and gave awards for work in different languages.
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