Renowned playback singer Manna Dey has been nominated for the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award for the year 2007.

Officials in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told PTI today that Dey's name was finalised earlier this week by a five-member committee.

The 90-year-old singer will be conferred the award in a ceremony on October 21st by President Pratibha Patil . Dey, one of the greatest playback singers in Indian cinema, ruled the playback music scene from the 1950s to the 1970s. He has sung more than 3,500 songs. The award, named after the father of Indian cinema Dada Saheb Phalke, is the highest honour in Indian Cinema.

He started his career in playback singing with the movie “Tamanna” in 1943. The song was an instant hit and later he sang a solo, “Upar Gagan Vishal”, in the 1950 movie “Mashal”.

His all-time hits include “Sur na saje kya gaun main”, “Na to karanwa ki talash hai na to humsafar ki talash hain”, “Puchho na kaise maine rain bitayee”, “Laga chunari main daag”, “Aaja sanam madhur chandani mein hum”, “Dil ka haal sune dilwala”, “Ye raat bhigi bhigi, ye masta fijzayen”, “Jhanak jhanak tori baaje payaliya”, “Tu pyar ka saagar hai”, “Chunari sambhal gori udi chali jaye re” and “Ay meri Zohara”.

He also teamed up with Kishore Kumar for hit numbers like “Yeh dosti hum nahin torenge” (”Sholay”) and “Ek chatur naar” (”Padosan”).

How can one forget “Yaari hai imaan mera yaar meri zindagi” from the film “Zanjeer”? He also sang for the Bengali film industry, sometimes teaming up with Hemant Kumar.

He sang a duet “Ke prothom kachhe esechi” with Lata Mangeshkar for the Bengali movie “Sankhyabela”.