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Back on air with Geetmala
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BELLA
JAISINGHANI
Amin
Sayani has completed 60 years in radio, and last month saw
the start of a fresh innings. The popular film song countdown,
Geetmala, which he has been associated with for the last 50
years, is back on Vividh Bharati every Sunday night.
Now called Colgate Cibaca Geetmala, the programme comprises
evergreen classics and current hits from Hindi films. The
first episode was aired across 22 Vividh Bharati stations
on February 18.
And it
is Mr Sayani's stylised anchoring, that spawned countless
imitations over the years, which is deemed responsible for
the show's popularity. Binaca Geetmala, for that is how it
began, was so popular it ran for 39 years on Radio Ceylon
after it was started in 1952. "In fact, during its peak
from the '50s through the '70s, listenership was estimated
to be anywhere from 9-20 crores," says Mr Sayani. "Nobody
bought radio sets that did not receive Radio Ceylon! I received
feedback from all over Asia and even the east coast of Africa."
Geetmala subsequently shifted to AIR's Vividh Bharati station.
Mr Sayani
was initiated into radio at the age of seven by his brother,
veteran broadcaster Hameed Sayani. "He was also a stage
actor and director, and pioneered ad films and documentaries
in India. Besides, he was a magician of international repute!"
Mr Sayani informs us. "Of course, Hameedbhai broadcast
in English, and I got into Hindi. My advantage was that I
learnt Hindustani, which is a mix of simple Hindi and Urdu
that everyone understands."
Mr Sayani
produces and exports radio programmes to West Asia, the US,
theUK and Canada, among other countries. "Of course,
a very significant task has been to produce programmes for
All India Radio (AIR). We have been doing spots, ads and jingles
for years, and have done a lot of work for the primary channel,
what we call `Mumbai A' here. Like this series, `Colgate Sangeet
Sitare', which ran for two years. Then there was a series
on AIDS, `Swanash', which was broadcast over 30 primary channels
in the Hindi belt."
Of course,
what most listeners cannot forget is his Behnon aur bhaiyon!
refrain on Geetmala. The programme was awarded the Radio Campaign
of the Century award by the Advertising Club of Bombay in
1999. And it is the only show to have set up listeners' radio
clubs that contribute to the song ratings. These clubs are
sought to be revived now that the programme is back on air.
While
television has made it challenging to draw people to radio
at prime time on Sundays, a drawback for Geetmala is that
it has a duration of 20 minutes as against the full hour that
listeners were accustomed to. "Well, that is mainly because
AIR's rates are so high," Mr Sayani explains. "In
fact, before we came on Vividh Bharati this time we had a
13-week run of Geetmala on the primary channel. We switched
to Vividh Bharati because this channel asks for lesser rates.
Of course, there is talk about the duration being increased
but one cannot commit to it yet." Mr Sayani retains faith
in the power of radio to do wonders provided its potential
is harnessed. "Radio has a vast reach. But if one has
to translate this reach into listenership, one has to ensure
that the programmes are good and well-knit, and one has to
promote the medium. Here is where producers and advertising
agencies think AIR falls short."
He continues,
"AIR already has a vast music bank; the kind I think
even TV channels don't have. But they need to keep adding
to it, and feeding their station so it doesn't starve. One
has to allow variety and creativity to flourish."
The man
whose strength lies in his voice and delivery says the secret
of good broadcasting lies in not sounding like one were reading
from a prepared script. "Apart from having a command
over the spoken language, an announcer needs to sound like
he were addressing each listener individually," he says.
"I liked Radio Mid-Day on FM because they did not allow
any script on the recordings."
His criticism
may be valid in certain cases, but Vividh Bharati's announcers
are household names all over the country precisely because
they have succeeded in eliminating these shortcomings. Names
like Kanta Gupta, Brij Bhushan Sharma, Brij Bhushan and Asha
Sahni, Kamal Sharma, Renu Bansal, Shehnaz, Yunus Khan and
Mamta Singh are idolised by listeners.
Interestingly,
despite his detailed analysis of the medium, Mr Sayani seldom
listens to radio nowadays. "Of course, I try and catch
my own spots and programmes!" he says.
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