About
Gayatri Asokan, born 2 March 1979 in Thrissur, Kerala, is a versatile singer whose career spans playback, Hindustani classical music, ghazal and devotional repertoire. Grounded first in Carnatic music and later trained in Hindustani music under Dr. Alka Deo Marulkar and Pandit Vinayaka Torvi, she made her playback debut in 2000 singing alongside K.J. Yesudas, and won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Singer for Enthe Nee Kanna.
Since 2017 Asokan has stepped away from regular film playback to focus on ghazal and classical presentation, releasing the album Ghazal Gaze and, in 2025, her debut as a composer with Dil Ke Behlane Ki, set to the poetry of Shakeel Badayuni and premiered at the Khazana Festival in Mumbai. She also hosts the Hindustani-music show Khayal, and performs global-fusion concerts with her husband, the sitar maestro Purbayan Chatterjee.
The artistry
Asokan is known as a thinking singer who blends technical precision with emotional weight, inhabiting the poetry rather than merely singing the notes. Her Carnatic grounding, Hindustani training and command of Urdu diction give her ghazals a distinctive depth.
Asokan offers a host a poetry-literate ghazal recital, a Hindustani or devotional concert, or a fusion collaboration with Purbayan Chatterjee. Versatile across classical, ghazal and crossover programming. [Atlas Assessment]
A singer who chose the depth of the ghazal over the pull of mainstream playback, carrying a Southern classical grounding into the Northern poetic tradition.