Manohar Mahajan

Manohar Mahajan has been a popular announcer of the Hindi Service of Radio Ceylon, the oldest radio station in South Asia. Millions of listeners in India would turn on their radio sets to hear his radio programs on Radio Ceylon.
Manohar Mahajan helped to establish Radio Ceylon as the leader of the airwaves in South Asia. He brought numerous, innovative and yet very popular concepts to Radio Programming, while working as the Chief Announcer for Radio Ceylon, which unarguably was the harbinger of the very concept of Radio in India. Radio Ceylon is now known as the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation. The station celebrated eighty years in broadcasting in December 2005. He returned to India in 1975, and has been a freelance broadcaster since, for radio and television. He is the ‘+A’ Grade Voice and Writer on the “Films Division” (Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, India) Panel of Voices and Writers since the last 25 years and spoken and written more than 500 Documentaries and News Reels. He brought the concept of Compering Fashion Shows and Beauty Contests / Trade Shows (in Hindi) in India. He has voiced more than 10000 Radio Programs, 7000 Radio Spots, Audio-visuals, Van Publicities, Jingles and voiceovers for Ad Films. He has compered Stage Shows in Hindi and interviewed some of the top personalities of all times such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Dilip Kumar, George Harrison, Neil Armstrong, Indira Gandhi, Amitabh Bachchan, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohd. Rafi, Bhimsen Joshi, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Kishore Kumar, Ustad Allarakha Khan, Mukesh, Mannadey, Talat Mehmood, Ustad Allauddin Khan, Dr. Jayant Narlikar, Mehndi Hassan, Noor Jehan, Sitaradevi and many more.
He presented Bombay Doordarshan’s most popular request program “Phir Wohi” for 3 years. He presented Bombay Doordarshan’s popular children’s’ program “Khel Khilone” for 5 years. He has written and presented “Music Millennium” for Zee Music, a T.V. Program which depicted the History of Indian Film Music. He has dubbed more than 300 Episodes for the “Discovery Channel” and over 150 episodes for the “National Geographic Channel” in Hindi. He has done Film Publicity for more than 600 Feature Films on radio, some of which are Sholay, Roti Kapda aur Makaan, Kasauti, Qurbani, Main Inteqaam Loonga, Pratigya, Dostana, Alibaba Chaalis Chor, etc. He has been the President of Association of Voice Artistes (AVA) affiliated to Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) for 2 consecutive terms. He has compered 'Malhar Festival' (7 day program) & 'Jugalbandi' (4 day program) organized by Indo Occidental Symbiosis at Kalamandir & Science City Auditorium, Kolkatta. Imminent music personalities like Pandit Jasraj, Kishori Amonkar, Ustad Shahid Pervez, Parveen Sultana, Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Shankar Ghosh, Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar, Pandit Kumar Bose, Pandit Kartick Kumar, Ustad Rashid Khan, Subhankar Banerjee, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Pandit Ramesh Mishra, Rakesh Chaurasia, Purbayan Chatterjee, Roshan Ali, Nayan & Ishan Ghosh, Pandit Bhawani Shankar, performed at these classical music shows.
Manohar Mahajan has been an active part of the Indian Broadcasting Industry for more than 40 years and has a lot of professional quality work to his name. A legendary voice artist and one of the most versatile commercial broadcaster in India till date is proficient in Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu. At present, he prefers writing in leisure and trains & shares life’s experiences and anecdotes with students and professionals alike.

He has conceived, written and presented the following radio programs:

• “Santogen Ki Mehfil” which is the second longest-running program on air in the History of Indian Radio. This Program ran for 19 years non-stop. The longest-running Radio program ever being “Binaca Geet Mala”.
• “Dharkan” for Exide Batteries in Hindi (Drama Format) which won the Ad Club’s Award in the Radio Category for the Best Sponsored Program.
• “Duncan’s Star Time” for Duncan’s Tea in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu (Film Song Based Program).
• “Bitco Rang Tarang” for Bitco Tooth Powder in Hindi (Film Soundtrack Program).
• “B.J. Ke Sangh, Sitaron Ke Rang” for Babubhai Jagjivandas in Hindi (Featuring Bollywood Film Stars).
• “Maratha Darbar Ki Bahar, Jawan Geeton Ke Saath” for Mysore Agarbatti Works, Jalgaon in Hindi.
• “Eveready Ke Hum Safar” for Eveready Batteries in Hindi (Drama Format) which won the RAPA Award.
• “Radio Patrika” for Maharashtra Rajya Lottery Board in Hindi (Radio Magazine).
• “Ek dhage Ke Moti” for Maharashtra Small-scale Industries in Hindi (Drama Format).
• “Tejaswi Kahaniyan” for Cycle Brand Agarbatti in Hindi (Dramatization of True Stories).
• “Sargam” for Y.G. Agarbatti Works, Mysore in Hindi (Year-wise History of Film Music).
• “McDowells Hit Parade” for McDowells in Hindi (Chartbuster Program).
• “Asoka Ki Adalat” for Asoka Biscuits, Hyderabad in Hindi (Court Drama Format).
• “Kissa Tota-Maina” for Life Insurance Corporation of India (L.I.C.) in Hindi (Folk Based Musical Program).

He has conceptualized, written and produced radio commercials for the following:

• “Reliance Triple Option Debentures” in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam, Oriya, Assamese.
• “Eveready Batteries” in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam, Oriya, Assamese.
• “H.M.T. Watches” & “H.M.T. Tractors” in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu.
• “Life Insurance Corporation of India (L.I.C.)” in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu.
• “General Insurance Corporation of India (G.I.C.)” in Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi, Malayalam, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu.

• National Award (1999): Best Documentary Writer (Documentaries were “Thirst”, “Cancer”)
• International American Clio Award (1979): Main Role Voice in a Radio Sponsored Program.
• RAPA Award:
  • BSA Deluxe Cycles – Radio Commercial
  • Maya Magazine - Radio Commercial
  • Eveready Battery – Radio Commercial
• Ad Club of India:
  • H.M.T. Tractors – Radio Commercial
  • L.I.C. – Radio Commercial
  • Dharkan – Radio Sponsored Program
• Rajasthan Shrimani Award: Awarded on Rajasthan Day (30 March) for making Hindi language popular through Radio, Television and Stage.