Playback singer, Gayathri Ashok was the very soul of simplicity when she arrived at the studio complex to do the honors as the first celebrity judge of ‘Super Troupe’.

Her no frills attire, flat heels and  conspicuous lack of  heavy make-up made her appearance almost  Spartan in its austerity, which was in  startling contrast to the usual flamboyant flashiness of celebrities.
As guest jury, she joined the eminent permanent judging  panel comprising veteran composer, Ouseppachan and noted singer, Biju Narayan.At the inauguration she was all praise for the organizers who had thought of such a novel concept & applauded their efforts to promote  the relatively unrecognized  Gana Mela for the first time.

After every troupe’s performance, Gayathri came up with discerning comments & shrewd observations which  complemented the valuable suggestions of the other jury members.Invited  onto  the ‘Super Troupe’ stage, Gaythri sang ‘Enthe Nee Kanna’ her award winning number, as a tribute to Ouseppachan its composer, who was present on the judges dias and followed it up with  ‘Deena Dayalo Rama’, her debut number  that had pitch forked her to fame  and  fortune .

Schooled  by   Sri Mangat Natesan and  Sri  Vamanan Namboodiri in   Carnatic music and
a member of a western pop band while in college, she found herself drawn to the Hindustani school, an attraction that was in a great measure due to her admiration for Hariharan. She was initiated into the mystique  of Hindustani by Ramesh Narayan, but preferring to learn it the traditional ‘gurukul’ way, she went to Pune under the guidance of Alka Marulkar  and devoted herself to it completely for the next 3 years.

Reared in Carnatic, trained in Hindustani,  equipped in Ghazals & at home in pop, she
became competent  in every genre and   soon she was singing the compositions of  established music directors in the film field ;official recognition of her prodigious talent came in the guise of a State Award for the Best  Female Playback Singer in 2003.

The 200 strong seasoned performers of countless stage shows , listened in appreciative silence  to the rendering of Gayathri who embodied the  qualities that symbolize the spirit of  ‘Super Troupe’ : Professional quality delivered with unassuming simplicity.