Early years
Of Bengali origin, Ghoshal grew up in the remote southern corner of Rajasthan, in the small township of Rawatbhata near the city of Kota. Her father works in Bhabha Atomic Research Center as an Engineer in the nuclear power plant by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (BARC) and mother is a postgraduate in literature. She belongs to a highly academic family. Her early days as a singer started from the age of four. Her mother was a good singer and whenever she used to play any note on the harmonium, Shreya used to sing correctly on her own.[citation needed] Her father recognized her talent and decided to give her proper training. But as she was residing in an isolated place near Kota, she could not get much help. Later on she started going to Kota and started learning proper Hindustani classical music.
She auditioned for Sa Re Ga Ma, an Indian television show, and they sent her for a year and a half training. It was here that music director Ismail Darbar discovered her and determined that she should be the voice of Paro, the heroine in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas (played on-screen by Aishwarya Rai). She began recording songs for the movie in 2000; the film itself was released two years later.
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