Mumbai: He has been singing for a while without making it to the A-list. He believes in going slow and steady and so he kept on singing and waiting for that big song. A fresh voice that doesn’t resemble anyone else's and a current favourite with A R Rehman, we think singer Javed Ali is the Next Big Thing.

Ali’s voice is across the music channels these days. After his first song with music composer A R Rehman congratulatory calls have been pouring in. For 29-year-old Javed Ali, it’s been a long struggle since he first sang for an easily forgettable film called Beti No 1 in 2000.

“After I sang for Beti No 1, there were no offers for me. I thought I can’t become a playback singer. However I kept on trying anyway,” Ali recalls.

Born and brought up in Delhi, Ali started singing since he could remember. He started out with his dad — a popular qawwali singer, Ustad Hamid Hussain. Music composer Kalyanji once heard him at a stage show, and impressed with his voice asked him to try his luck at playback singing. From jingles and title track for TV soaps, he gradually moved to films.

But that big song never came his way or even if it did, his voice was later replaced with someone else's voice, which is quite the norm with many new singers.

“It’s frustrating but after sometime you get used to it. Sometimes your voice doesn’t suit the actor and there are many other reasons. There is no way out,” Ali says.

So, he waited for lady luck to smile at him and continued singing for films like Kyun Ho Gaya Na, Haasil, Paagalapan, Chameli, Bunty aur Babli and more recently in Golmaal and Malamaal Weekly.

It was in 2007 that he struck big time with Jab We Met’s Nagada Nagada and then followed it up with Ek Din from Naqaab. And when AR Rehman asked him to sing for Jodha Akbar he could not believe his luck, because to sing for Rehman was his ultimate dream. And now in spite of singing for chartbusters, there is someone who is still very difficult to please.

“Daddy keeps on correcting my singing. How to do, what to do, but mom is always happy with whatever I sing,” Ali adds.

Like many others, Rehman is surely impressed with him, as the maestro has repeated Ali in Sivaji's Hindi remake and Subhash Ghai's musical Yuvraaj.