MUMBAI: In the era when there were no televisions let alone the internet or cellular phones a whole generation of Indians grew up to the signature greeting of  ‘Behno aur Bhaiyo’ in the heavy yet pleasant voice of Ameen Sayani, the iconic announcer of the popular radio show Binaca Geetmala on the national radio. That soothing voice is silenced forever as Sayani passed away from a heart attack on 20 February 2024 at the age of 91.

Ameen Sayani's death was confirmed by son Rajil Sayani who said that his father suffered a heart attack on Tuesday night, after which they took him to HN Reliance Hospital, where he passed away during treatment.  

Although more known for the Geetmala  (broadcasted since 1952 – mainly over Radio Ceylon and later over All India Radio's Vividh Bharati)  for a total of over 42 years since 1951, Ameen Sayani produced, compered (or provided voice-overs for) over 54,000 radio programmes and 19,000 spots and jingles for various commercials. He was also a part of various movies throughout the years, such as Bhoot Bungla, Teen Devian, Boxer, and Qatl. He appeared in all of these movies in the role of an announcer in some events.

Born into a Gujarati Muslim family in Bombay (now Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra) into a family of freedom fighters, his mother Kulsoom was close to Mahatma Gandhi, which is why Sayani called himself a Gandhian. He began his career as an English broadcaster but he transitioned to Hindi post-independence and as destiny had it led him to his first Hindi commercial in 1951 this passion lasted over six decades and countless programmes of  'Binaca Geetmala' launched in 1952, which became his signature. 

As the news of his death was known, tributes began pouring in on social media for Ameen Sayani, and Actors Anupam Kher, Ajay Devgn and Manoj Bajpayee paid iconic radio host Sayani tweeted or posted on social media about his rich contribution to the industry.