Meet Ameen Avi singer of Jhoota on his rise to stardom with Khan Saab of Dhurandhar fame

Dubai: Avinash Kumar spends his weekdays as a Project Specialist at Amazon. His weekends belong to something else entirely.

Better known by his stage name Ameen Avi, the singer from Sri Ganganagar, Rajasthan reached out to Gulf News to share his story, hoping it gives aspiring musicians or anyone wrestling with a passion they have put on hold the courage not to give up.

He has spent the last two years in Dubai building a music career alongside his corporate one, collaborating with respected names in Punjabi and Bollywood music and preparing to drop a new single within days.

"Your profession can provide stability, but your passion gives you purpose," he says. "Never stop working on the dream that makes you feel alive."

The music started early. Growing up in Sri Ganganagar, Avinash came from a family where he first encountered singing through bhajans at community gatherings. He never had a dedicated teacher. Instead, what he had was a good ear and the ability to absorb.

"I was a good listener. I was just copying the best elements, like when it comes to ragas and all. It makes me feel more lively when I'm into it."

He competed in singing competitions from the age of seven or eight. But when it came to choosing a career, a musical career was not on the table.

Avinash says his parents weren't supportive due to financial reasons, he shares without bitterness. "I would say, this is the beauty of life. Instead of putting that hard work into music at that time, I put more hard work into building myself, to take myself to a level where I can show my music to the world."

He joined Vodafone in India in 2012, moved to Dubai in 2016 for a telecom role, and eventually joined Amazon. Stable. Successful. And for a long stretch, almost entirely silent on the music front.

"I was feeling like the music inside me was just gone. It was just a dream, and it just went."

The turning point arrived unexpectedly.

Visiting a gurudwara in Dubai one day, he heard a man on the stage blending Bollywood riffs into the music. He went up to him after the performance. The man was Khushwant Singh, a singer who had done live shows in Mumbai before moving to Dubai. The two ended up in the basement of the gurudwara that same day, singing together for the first time.

"He became a running point in my life. He was like, 'Man, you were sounding really good, and you should do something.' So we started doing cover songs together."

The next significant connection came through Khan Saab, the singer known for his work in the film Dhurandhar, whom Avinash met in Dubai through a mutual contact. Khan Saab's team offered to handle production at a manageable cost, giving Avinash the one thing he had been unable to find on his own: a way in.

"Each dot was getting connected to take me to that step. That's how destiny works."

His debut song arrived in 2024, a collaboration with Yashika Sikka, a singer from A.R. Rahman's circle. He kept it completely secret until everything was published.

"The moment they saw the poster, each and everyone started calling me. How have you done it? How did you meet her, she's so famous?"

His parents, who had once steered him away from music, saw the launch coverage in local newspapers back in India. His father now attends press conferences there on his behalf.

"Sometimes when I watch those photos, it gives me tears in my eyes. This is the same parent who was not allowing me to do such things, but now they are attending, and they are feeling themselves proud. That's the achievement, I would say."

His stage name came from Khan Saab, who suggested Ameen and Avi from Avinash. He also shares that he thinks his name is very intense and sounds like one from Bollywood, "like Avinash Kumar-like Amithabh Bachan so I asked Khan Saab to help me out."

Within days, he will release a Rajasthani and Punjabi fusion track created with Amar Jalal, the singer and composer behind the viral hit Tera Nasha. He shot the video last Friday.

"Whenever I think of this song, it's like butterflies," he says.

Everything goes on his own channel, Ameen Music, which he runs entirely independently.

He has received offers from labels and from films seeking to use existing tracks, but none of the commercial arrangements have yet aligned with what he considers fair.

"They expect, okay, you are a new artist and you just want visibility, and they should just feel that's enough," he says.

He practises in the car on the commute, warms up on ragas between meetings and spends his two and a half days off each week in music sessions with friends.

"My soul is empty without this element in me. If I am pure to my art, it will have impact on the world."