Naman Ramachandran Ameen Sayani, the doyen of Indian radio, died on Tuesday in Mumbai following a heart attack. He was 91. The news was confirmed by his son Rajil Sayani.
Sayani, known for his mellifluous voice, initially worked as an English-language presenter for All India Radio (AIR) in Bombay, as Mumbai was known then, thanks to his brother Hamid who was a broadcaster there.
Ironically, Sayani’s journey to radio superstardom began not on AIR but on neighbouring Radio Ceylon. In 1952, Balakrishna Vishwanath Keskar was appointed by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister.
Keskar was not enamoured of Hindi-language film songs as he was on a drive to promote Indian classical music. After initially restricting airtime for Hindi songs to a 10% quota, he banned them from AIR altogether.
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