Zubeen’s fans in Jorhat plead with music lovers to vote for the singer. Picture by Aabir Borgohain

Guwahati, Feb. 21: Assam did it for Debojit Saha. Now it is going all out to help Zubeen Garg achieve what no other singer in the Northeast has got — the Filmfare award for best singer.

Thousands are joining a massive SMS and e-mail campaign to vote for Zubeen, who has been nominated for the best playback singer award in the prestigious Filmfare Awards for his Ya Ali from the Bollywood blockbuster Gangster. The award is the Bollywood version of the Oscars.

Mobile companies have started an SMS campaign, urging music lovers to log onto the website www.filmfare.com to vote for Zubeen through the Internet.

“Expectations are quite high and let’s see what happens at the awards function,” Zubeen told The Telegraph from Mumbai. “I am hoping for the best,” he added on a confident note.

Zubeen will also perform Ya Ali at the awards function slated for February 24 in Mumbai.

The expectations of fans combined with Zubeen’s confidence are not unfounded. He was recently adjudged the new musical sensation (best playback singer male) for his chartbuster Ya Ali at the Kenstar Setmax Stardust film awards. He also won the best singer award for the number at the Global Indian Film awards in Malaysia last year.

The Assam chapter of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has made a written appeal to all the leading mobile companies operating in the state to launch an SMS campaign for the state’s numero uno singer. NSUI president Bibhuti Barthakur said mobile companies have been approached to begin an SMS campaign urging the music lovers of Assam to vote for Zubeen through the Internet.

Fans, of course, need no further encouragement. “I have voted for Zubeen and request you to do the same,” college student Shikha Kakoti said.

Hailing from the Upper Assam town of Jorhat, Zubeen burst onto the state’s music scene in 1991 with his debut album Anamika and has since established himself as the music idol of the state.

Zubeen, who is also a music composer and an actor, has so far sung more than 7,000 songs in various languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Oriya, Marathi and Nepali.

Some of the Bollywood films for which he has rendered his voice include Fizaa, Kante, Mudda, Brides Wanted, Gangster and Pyaar Ke Side Effects. He also composed the music for the Sanjay Jha-directed Hindi film Strings.

Zubeen also acted, co-produced and scored music in the Assamese film Dinabandhu, which got the National Award in 2005.