The ‘man with golden voice’ Ameen Sayani, who enticed radio listeners for decades with his unique conversational style of hosting shows, was the reason why Amitabh Bachchan could not build a career as a radio presenter. Sayani used to be so engrossed in his job that he denied an audition to Bachchan thrice, pushing him towards a career in acting, inadvertently.
Ameen Sayani passed away on Tuesday, following a cardiac arrest. He was 91.
At the time when he was hosting a show called ‘Sitaron ki Jawaniyaan’ in 2014, Sayani narrated how he missed the chance to audition Bachchan, who went on to become the ‘Shehenshah’ of Hindi cinema. It was only after the release of Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s 1971 film Anand that he came to know that the man whose voice he loved in the film, is the same man who came to him with the dream of becoming a radio presenter.
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During an interview with PTI in 2014, Sayani shared that back in the late 60s, he used to do 20 shows a week and most of his time was spent in radio studios as besides being the presenter, he was also handling other processes of radio processing. So, he barely had time to meet anyone, let alone audition a man who visited him unannounced.
“One day, a young man named Amitabh Bachchan walked in without an appointment for a voice audition. I had not a second to spare for this thin man. He waited and left and came back a few more times. But I could not see him and kept telling him through my receptionist to make an appointment and come,” Sayani shared.
Later, at an award show, where Sayani had only invited Bachchan as the chief guest, the actor recalled during his speech that he was denied an audition by a broadcasting firm thrice as they were “too busy to attend him.” Sayani was surprised by the actor’s claim, and he asked his wife Rama, who also worked with him at Radio Ceylon, what the actor was referring to. This is when she reminded him how he had sent away a man saying he should come with an appointment but never met him.
‘I regret denying Amitabh Bachchan an audition’
However, the radio connoisseur was happy that he didn’t meet Bachchan for an audition, else he would have destroyed his own career as a radio presenter and would have kept the country devoid of a fine actor as Amitabh Bachchan.
He told PTI, “Today, though I regret denying him an audition, I realise that what happened was for the best for both of us. I would have been on the streets and he would have got so much work on radio that Indian cinema would have lost its biggest star.”
Amitabh Bachchan made his debut with Saat Hindustani in 1969, but exploded on the silver screen with Zanjeer in 1973. The actor continues to entertain the audience even today.
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