Big B's Radio Jockey Dream Was Shattered by Ameen Sayani

NEW DELHI -- Few are aware that superstar Amitabh Bachchan had nurtured a dream of becoming a radio presenter before trying his luck in Bollywood. He even visited Mumbai studio Of All India Radio for auditions.

Popular radio announcer Ameen Sayani, who is back on air with his new show, Sitaron ki Jawaniyaan, has revealed that he did not have time to meet him as the actor had not taken an appointment for a voice audition.

"It was somewhere in late sixties when I used to do 20 shows a week, spending most of the day locked up in the sound studio as I was involved in the every process of radio programming. One day, a young man named Amitabh Bachchan walked in without 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 take an appointment and come," Sayani told PTI in an interview.

Ameen, 81, got to know later that it was the Sholay star who used to come to his office for the auditions.

When Sayani watched Anand (1971), where Big B starred opposite Rajesh Khanna at a trial show, he was bowled over by the personality and voice of Big B without knowing he was the same person who had come for the audition.

"Amitabh Bachchan had come as chief guest for an award function and he spoke about his struggling days when he had gone thrice to a radio station and was not even allowed to sit for an audition. I was shocked to hear that. Later, when I interviewed him we spoke about this at length and laughed on it," Ameen remembers.