Zubeen is a born singer
23 Oct 2007, 0000 hrs IST,TNN
 

Now, the charming Zubeen makes his debut on television in a reality show, Jhoom India.

New age musician Zubeen Garg sincerely believes he is a born singer. At an age when most toddlers barely warble, Zubeen learnt to sing a few notes! He was barely three years old, when his musical journey began back home in Assam. A trained singer, Zubeen studiously stayed away from professional music until he graduated. He found celebdom in mainstream Bollywood, with the chartbusting Ya Ali number in Gangster last year.

Now, the charming Zubeen makes his debut on television in a reality show, Jhoom India. A self-confessed sufi singer, Zubeen insists he’s also been influenced by western music, Sting being an all-time favourite.
Zubeen’s debut Assamese album, Anamika, was a huge hit and since then he has never looked back. In fact, Zubeen says he wasn’t particularly sold out to the Mumbai dream. He says, I sing as many as 600 songs a year in Assam and my albums sell 20 lakh copies. I always felt that when I live like a king in Assam, why should I look out for work in Mumbai?

His initial days in Mumbai could have been tough, but for Ranjit Barot, his almost godfather. Zubeen rewinds, I was completely alone when I came here for the first time. One of the first people to help me out was Ranjit Barot. Even Pritamji and Anand Raaj Anand were quite helpful.

The versatile Zubeen, who’s also won the best supporting actor award for his film Deshbandhu, reveals some future plans, I am making a film, Chakra, with a very unusual subject. The lead role is a very crucial one for which I have selected an actor friend. I may play the supporting role apart from directing and composing the music. Also coming up is a five-star resort on river Brahmaputra.

And that’s not all. Zubeen has ambitious musical plans too. In the pipeline is a special modern Indian lounge album, a remix version of SD Burman songs. He says, It is an experimental album and I have spent a lot on it. Apart from that ‘Paakeza’, my solo album of north-east folk and an English album named Where The Sun Rises are in planning stages.

Zubeen’s musical style has evolved from western and Indian folk. The young singer croons in several languages including Assamese, Bengali, Punjabi, Telegu, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, English and almost all the north-eastern languages. But at the end of the day if he were to describe himself, he would like to call himself, a folk singer.