Saroo was born as Sheru Munshi Khan in Khandwa's Ganesh Tilai neighbourhood (Madhya Pradesh). As a young boy, his father left his mother, catapulting the family into poverty. His mother worked at construction sites to support herself and her three children. She couldn't afford to send them to school, so when Saroo was 5, he along with his older brothers Guddu and Kallu, began begging at the railway station.

Adoption by an Australian family

Weeks later, he was moved to the Indian Society for Sponsorship and Adoption where he was adopted by the Brierley family of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. During all the commotion, his mother frantically searched for her sons. A few weeks later, she was informed that Guddu's body had been found near the railway tracks after he had been struck by a train, a kilometer from Burhanpur. Undeterred, she continued her search for Saroo, travelling to different places on trains.

Meanwhile, Saroo grew up as a typical Australian boy in Hobart. He studied business and hospitality at the Australian International Hotel School in Canberra.

The quest to trace his family

He would often spend many hours over many months on Google Earth, following railway lines radiating out from the Howrah railway station, in the hope of tracing his way back home.

One night in 2011, while browsing Google Earth, he stumbled upon a name that rang a bell; it was Burhanpur Station. He followed it and found the town of Khandwa and recognizable features such as a fountain near the train tracks where he used to play. Saroo then contacted a Facebook group based in Khandwa and got in touch with the members.