Binaca Geet Mala, Introduction & history Options

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The famous radio show Binaca Geetmala was introduced toward the end of 1952, as an experiment, and the host Ameen Sayani was asked to write, produce, and present it on Radio Ceylon (now Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) every Wednesday evening at the salary of Rs. 25 per week. For about 1 and half years 7 contemporary (not necessarily the most popular) songs were played every week and listeners were offered Rs. 100 as prize money probably to order them on basis of their popularity.

About Ameen Sayani:

The finest radio commercial broadcaster ever known in Asia, Ameen Sayani was blessed with a wonderful and rich voice that has entertained radio listeners for over 60 years already. In 1952 he pioneered the now legendary radio show Binaca Geetmala that soon became the popularity standard of Hindi film music. The show ran for 41 continuous years before it was discontinued until it was revived again in 2002. He has presented countless radio shows, radio commercials, sponsored audio tapes, stage shows, and interviews with film and music stars so far. He also acted in a film Bhoot Bangla? (1965) where he probably played himself. Read more about him @ his home page : http://www.ameensayani.com/

Ameen Sayani on Binaca Geetmala's history

"The first programme was telecast at the end of 1952, on Radio Ceylon. Those were the days of Mahal, Nagin, Udan Khatola, when melody ruled the roost, and the show caught on in a big way. Every week, on Wednesdays, from 8 to 9 pm poeple were glued to the radio.

“The Geetmala which was aired from 1952-53 didn’t rank the songs. It only played seven hit songs, without rating them. It was only in 1954 that Geetmala became a countdown show. I remember vividly that in 1954, the topper of the first countdown show was Talat Mahmood’s Jayen to jayen kahan.

“Popularity of the song was the main parameter when rating the songs. We got the correct sales figures of the records, and also went by personal voting from listeners. Soon we realised that votes were getting rigged, with people sending in more than one entry in different names. So we stopped the farmaish part and relied only on sales of records. That was fool-proof to an extent, because there were only two songs on a record, so the shop-owners knew which songs were doing well on the basis of the demand.

“Even then, as a safe-keeping measure, and to double-check, we formed radio clubs of dedicated listeners, who would write to us every week and give us their feedback. The parameter of sale of records proved to be a handicap sometimes. Like, if a song was a runaway hit, the records would be sold out. If the records sold out, it would show no sales figures till the time new records were supplied to the shop. So the feedback we would get is that no records were selling, which would affect the rating of a song. That’s where our radio clubs came in handy and proved to be an accurate system.

“As years progressed, Geetmala gained in credibility and became so reliable that the Gramophone Company Ltd. i.e HMV, the main music company supplying records then, would ask us for an advance list so that they could keep pressing those numbers, and not land in a situation where records were sold out.

“In the later years, as the programme gained in popularity, we wanted to air it on Vividh Bharati too, but the station wasn’t ready to accept the programme with the same name. It took on the programme only after we changed the name to Cibaca Sangeetmala from Cibaca Geetmala. So it was telecast on two stations, as Cibaca Geetmala on Radio Ceylon, and as Cibaca Sangeetmala, of half-an-hour duration, on Vividh Bharati. After the show was discontinued on Radio Ceylon, it was telecast as Cibaca Geetmala on Vividh Bharati.

“Cibaca Geetmala caught on in a big way in a matter of time. It was the absolute barometer for Hindi film music. So much so that the remuneration of a music director was on the basis of whether his songs featured in the Geetmala.

“The best music on the show was heard in the late 50s and 60s, since that was the golden period of Hindi film music. Shanker-Jaikishan were ruling then. There were other good music directors too, who, though were compsoing good songs, were not doing that well. Now these composers complained to the film industry leaders that Cibaca Geetmala was ruining their careers and wanted it to be discontinued. We took their complaint into consideration and for one year Geetmala didn’t announce the ratings of the songs, just playing it in popularity order, without rating it as number one, two or three.

“After sometime we realised this had no meaning and the essence of the show was lost. We told the film industry leaders that knocking out the ratings was not helping anybody, and decided on continuing with the ratings. We suggested that the film industry appoint an ombudsman who would approve the ratings and ensure that they were accurate. G.P. Sippy, the then president of IMPPA, was the first ombudsman. After that B.R. Chopra and Shreeram Bohra were together appointed ombudsmen. Every week, I had to go to them, show them the ratings and get their signature to prove that there was no bias.

“Geetmala ruled for 39 years, after which satellite television came to India, and countdown shows began on TV. Superhit Muqabla was the first countdown show on TV, and as television caught on, it affected Geetmala. The show went on till 1994, after which due to dwindling popularity of the radio, it was discontinued after 42 years."

As told to S.K., Screen, Friday, September 22, 2000

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