MUMBAI: For Jonita Gandhi, an Indo Canadian singer, her musical journey began when she shared the mic with the legendary SP Balasubramain for the title track of Chennai Express.

The film actually was not planned and she was called for the recording while she was at home in Canada. “It was the sound engineer who spotted my talent and showed it to Vishal Shekhar and this is how I recorded the scratch of the song. After I couple of months I found out that my voice was retained and my joy knew no bounds,” she said to Radioandmusic.com's Dhairya Ingle.

Recently, the 24 year old also lent her voice to the song 'Kahaan Hoon Main', from the film Highway. Describing the aura of the musical genius, AR Rahman, she said, “It is the simplicity of Rahman Sir that touches you the most, and you get so awed and anxious by his presence. But he on the contrary supports you and does not let you get uncomfortable,” she explained.

For her it was difficult to scale the map between Canada and Mumbai, leaving all her family back home in order to pursue her music interests. She has learnt western classical but has grown up listening to the stalwarts like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosale. Her father has a huge influence on her singing. “It is probably because of my father I came to Mumbai,” she elaborated. She also adores Sunidhi Chauhan, Shreya Ghoshal and Sonu Nigam.

Five years down the line she sees herself performing all around the globe and would wish to become an established singer in Bollywood.