How Ameen Sayani’s Binaca Geetmala took film songs to listeners in Jhumri Talaiya and beyond

“Behno aur bhaiyo, aap ki khidmat me Ameen Sayani ka adaab (sisters and brothers, in your service, Ameen Sayani greets you).” For four decades, Ameen Sayani, who passed away in February at the age of 91 and was arguably South Asia’s best known radio broadcaster, greeted Binaca Geetmala’s listeners with a version of this phrase recited in his characteristic upbeat style.

Binaca Geetmala was a weekly countdown or hit parade radio programme that ranked Hindi film songs by order of popularity, first based on listeners’ requests and subsequently according to record sales. The programme aired mostly uninterrupted from 1952 until 1994 and is one of the longest running and most influential radio programmes in the world.

Binaca was a consumer brand owned by the multinational pharmaceutical company CIBA-Geigy Limited and “geetmala” or “geet mala” means garland of songs in several South Asian languages. Geetmala aired on Radio Ceylon located in the nearby island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Radio Ceylon became an immensely successful commercial radio station that in the decades following India’s independence from British rule developed a symbiotic relationship with the Hindi film industry in Bombay.

Geetmala, which aired on Wednesday nights at 8 pm during most of its four decade-long run, seeped into everyday life, films and jokes. While...

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