Ameen Sayani, a pioneering radio presenter who drew in generations of listeners in India with his melodic voice on a radio show that became a national phenomenon, died in Mumbai on Tuesday. He was 91.
He died of a heart attack in a hospital, according to his son, Rajil.
Mr. Sayani was one of the most recognizable voices in Indian radio as the host of one of the first radio shows in the country. He showcased songs featured in Hindi movies for more than 42 years, helping establish a place for film music in India’s popular culture.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India expressed his condolences on social media on Wednesday, saying that Mr. Sayani “played an important role in revolutionizing Indian broadcasting and nurtured a very special bond with his listeners.”
Ameen Sayani was born on Dec. 21, 1932, in Mumbai. From a young age, he showed an interest in the humanities, helping his mother, Kulsum Sayani, with her literary journal as a teenager and becoming fluent in Hindi, English, Gujarati and Marathi, his son said. Ameen’s father, Janmohammed Sayani, was a medical doctor. Both parents were involved in India’s independence struggle.
Mr. Sayani was involved in radio as early as age 7, becoming one of the first voices to be heard on the airwaves in Asia after his elder brother, an English-language presenter, introduced him to the medium. Ameen graduated from Mumbai University with a degree in history.
In 1952, Mr. Sayani started the radio program that drove him to fame, “Binaca Geetmala,” which showcased Bollywood music.
He hosted the program on Radio Ceylon, one of the oldest radio stations in the world, based in what is now Sri Lanka. The year he started his show, All India Radio, the state-owned radio broadcaster where he had worked before, stopped airing Hindi film music, as the government believed it was vulgar and westernized after India achieved independence from Britain.
Listeners tuned into Mr. Sayani’s program, and Radio Ceylon, in droves. While his show began as a half-hour series, it was extended to an hour two years later because of its explosive popularity. The show also became one of the main presenters of popular film music on the radio in India.
“Hello, sisters and brothers,” he often said on the show in Hindi. “This is your friend Ameen Sayani talking.” The phrase became his signature, and widely imitated, way of addressing his audience, evoking nostalgia, and instantly recognizable among longtime listeners. He said later in an interview with an Indian TV station that he insisted on mentioning the “ladies first.”
The show was moved to All India Radio in 1989, years after the broadcaster reversed its ban on Bollywood music. The program thrived for decades, captivating listeners with Mr. Sayani’s deep knowledge and his versatile ability to be serious at times and playful at others.
The show ended in 1994 as satellite television took hold in India. But in the years that followed, he appeared on various shows, in India and abroad, as a radio jockey.
“For most of us,” Anurag Thakur, India’s information and broadcasting minister, said, “he was the voice of the radio, who, with his magical wordplay, entertained and engaged us in a way no one had before.”
Mr. Sayani is survived by his son and daughter-in-law. Mr. Sayani’s wife, Rama Sayani, whom he married in 1958, died in 2002.
