How an Italian horse trainer's challenge started the circus tradition in India in 19th century

Vishnupant Vinayak Chhatre, a horse trainer from Maharashtra set up the first-ever circus in India, named The Great Indian Circus But it is Kerala’s Keelari Kunjikannan who is known as the father of the Indian circus Kunjikannan was a Kalaripayattu or martial arts teacher who turned his school into a circus Kalari and trained acrobats who would be hired by Vinayak Many men, women and children trained from this circus kalari, went out to perform across circus companies in India, Europe, the US and Australia The late circus legend Gemini Shankaran was one of Kunjikannan’s disciples who went on to own one of the most famous circuses in India The first few decades of independent India ushered in a glorious run for the circus, with patronage from the Nehrus and Gandhis, and even film stars like Raj Kapoor The ban on animals and children under 18 from performing in circuses dealt a body blow to the industry and the crowds started thinning Then the pandemic struck and several circuses had to shut shop, pushing the form of entertainment further to the periphery The Indian circus is now but a shadow of its former glory, but a few of the big banners like Rambo Circus are trying to reinvent the form through theatric shows A recent theatric show at Siri Fort pleased the audience so much that they had to run shows for an extra week on public demand Circus is slowly coming out of its traditional mould, reinventing itself as social commentary and digital acts to stay alive in a tech-savvy worldEp 1: How an Italian horse trainer’s challenge started the circus tradition in India in 19th centuryThe circus tradition in India began with a challenge. The year was 1879 and Vishnupant Vinayak Chhatre had just accepted a dare that was daunting to say the least. He was in charge of the stables of Raja Balasahib Patwardhan of Kurundwad, near modern-day Kolhapur in Maharashtra. And, as a horse trainer, he taught them a few tricks as well. But getting them to do acrobatics that matched the skills of the Italian Chiarini’s horses was quite impossible. Giuseppe Chiarini was one of the greats of the world circus industry during that time, and by accepting his challenge, Vinayak might have bitten off more than he could chew. But within three months, Vinayak put up a spectacular show at the Kurundwad Palace Grounds, making his horses do everything that the Italian circus company’s horses had done. Soon after, Vinayak bought most of Chiarini’s circus equipment, his animals and even his performers to set up his own circus company -- The Great Indian Circus -- in 1880. That was the first circus establishment in India. Origin stories from Maharashtra and Kerala In this podcast series called Ring Masters: Untold stories of the Indian Circus, we take you through the genesis of one of the oldest forms of entertainment in India, that spectacle called the circus. Veteran journalist and circus history enthusiast M G Radhakrishnan runs us through India’s circus origins, saying, “The modern circus in India dates back to the late 19th century. The first two Indian circuses were born in Maharashtra during the 1870s and 1880s -- one was the circus of the legendary Vishnupant Vinayak Chhatre, and the other one was Yashwant Gangaram More’s Grand Indian More Circus. Both Chhatre and More put up their own circus companies after they happened to witness the performance of European circus companies in Bombay during the 1870s. There are very interesting stories about how Chhatre, a horse trainer of the local Raja, was challenged by the Italian circus company Chiarini to make horses do acrobatics. Chhatre took up the challenge and made his horses do whatever the Italian company’s horses could.” Eventually, with the help of his Maharaja, Chhatre bought the Italian circus company, including its animals and performers, and put up his own company. “Chhatre’s wife, Avda Bai, who was trained as a trapeze artist, is said to be India’s first woman circus star,” shares Radhakrishnan. Circus historian Nisha PR, who has written an exhaustive book titled, Jumbos and Jumping Devils: A Social History of Indian Circus, offers another origin story from Kerala. “The same kind of narrative is there for Keeleri Kunjikannan teacher, who is supposed to be the circus guru in South India. Keeleri Kunjikannan teacher sees the European Hippodrome circus which visits the Thalassery town around 1880, and he accepts the challenge of performing a circus trick that the Hippodrome circus owner was performing. Then he excels in those circus performances. These historical narratives are reproduced and those who trace the origin of circus, go back to British circuses established by Philip Astley and even to Roman amphitheatres with gladiators and acrobatic shows,” she says. But as a historian, Nisha is not interested in origin narratives of the circus as they more or less trace back to Eurocentric histories. “For me, early 20th century India was a place where circuses came from all over the world, not just from Europe. There were Russian companies coming in, circuses were coming from Australia and many Indian acrobats, jugglers and magicians were travelling to the American, Australian and European arenas from even before the 20th century,” Nisha adds. Even though Vishnupant Vinayak Chhatre set up the very first circus, it is Keelari Kunjikannan who is widely known as the father of the Indian circus. The circus tradition in South India has its roots in Kerala’s martial art routine Kalaripayattu. Kunjikannan was a Kalaripayattu teacher who also taught gymnastics at a local missionary school in Thalassery. He came across Vinayak’s circus, which had stopped over at the town as part of its tour across the country. Vinayak was a deft equestrian, but acrobatics was becoming the new attraction at various European and American circuses. And Vinayak’s troupe lacked expertise on that. So both of them made a pact -- Kunjikannan would train young acrobats who would be hired by Vinayak for his Great Indian Circus. By 1901, Kunjikannan had turned his Kalaripayattu school at Chirakkara village near Kollam to the first circus kalari in India that would exclusively train performers. This circus school churned out brilliant disciples who began to populate all the circuses across India. Some of them became star performers and eventually owned many circuses. Among his disciples was MK Raman, who established the Keeleri Kunjikannan Teacher Memorial Circus and Gymnastic Training Centre in Chirakkara after Kunjikannan passed away. medium108529803Circus, the great leveller Circus was not just a form of entertainment. By the first half of the 20th century, it emerged as a metaphor for freedom as well -- from caste discrimination, gender oppression and socio-economic disparity. In a way, the circus was a great leveller in Kerala’s suffocatingly rigid caste hierarchy that had even seeped into its Kalaripayattu tradition. “Keelari converted his Kalari payattu (school for martial arts) into a circus Kalari, reimagining and refashioning a rigid caste-based physical culture like Kalaripayattu through some radically egalitarian ideas,” shares Nisha, adding, “Through these circus kalaris (schools), a social space for different castes, communities and genders was imagined. This was hardly possible with a kalari payattu where each caste had their own kalaris that had grown out of discriminating caste practices and prejudices. This modern form circus, thus caste free, could accommodate all castes, communities and genders. Many men, women and children, trained at these circus kalaris went out to perform across circus companies in India and also European, American and Australian circuses.” Kannan Bombayo, Keelari’s nephew, is legendary in the memories of Malabar acrobats. He was also trained in this circus Kalari and his performance in front of Hitler in Berlin is still vibrant in the memories of circus artistes and workers across India. He performed at the British Bertram Mills and the American Ringling Brothers’ Barnum and Bailey circuses as well. Not just the circus community in Malabar remembers him, Kannan Bombayo was known the world over as the greatest acrobat on the bouncing rope. He had joined his uncle’s circus kalari when he was just seven years old. There, he learnt perch-pole balancing and several other circus skills related to acrobatics. His double back somersaults were remarkable, and rope dancing was his first love. When he was 15, he started his bouncing rope performance at the Whiteway Circus, which was owned by Kunjikannan’s nephew, K M Kunjikannan. This circus literally opened up the world for him. Bombayo toured all of Europe and the United States of America as a rope dancing sensation. Not just Bombayo, several other students of Keelari Kunjikannan made it big for themselves, despite their humble beginnings. Radhakrishnan stresses that Kunjikannan’s circus kalaris upturned the caste system in the Malabar region with a quiet but firm intent to uplift the downtrodden. He used to pick up young children from poor and backward families of the area and train them in a variety of acts so that they could earn a living through circus performances. Those too poor to afford an education or those with a keen interest in the performing arts were cherrypicked by Kunjikannan and carved a niche for themselves in their respective circus careers. “In no time, Kunjikannan’s brilliant disciples began to populate all the circuses in India. In fact, in Chhatre’s circus, at least 15 of them were students and disciples of Kunjikannan, including his most famous disciple, MK Raman. Many of them became stars in various national circus companies and even came to own their own circus companies. MV Shankaran, later known as Gemini Shankaran, who recently died at the age of 99, was a disciple of Keerali Kunjikannan and his assistant MK Raman. He was called the Lord of the Ring. Shankaran the acrobat turned into an entrepreneur when he bought the Vijaya Circus of Calcutta in 1951 and renamed it Gemini,” recalls Radhakrishnan. Gemini Shankaran’s patrons included prime ministers like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain and, of course film actors like Raj Kapoor, Nargis and others. In fact, it’s said that Indira Gandhi arranged a free train to transport Shankaran’s performing humans and animals for a show which was watched by no less than Martin Luther King Junior, Edwina Mountbatten, Yuri Gagarin, and Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union. “He also came to own two more circus companies later, the Jumbo Circus and the Great Royal Circus. His sons run these circus companies even today. His was the best known circus company abroad. Gemini Circus was the first Indian circus to perform in the International Circus show in Moscow. Mera Naam Joker, the famous Hindi film by Raj Kapoor, was shot in the rings of Gemini,” he adds. medium108529836A paradise for the marginalised Kunjikannan’s circus kalari also gave women a level playing field at a time when they were almost invisible in public life. Radhakrishnan elaborates, “Women were readily encouraged to join his school and some of the best women circus performers like Yashoda and Devaki were all his students. They were all great stars in Indian circuses, and eventually joined circuses in Bombay and Calcutta. They were encouraged to join the circus and they became superstar trapeze artists and jeep jumpers. And all this was during the early 20th century, when women were not usually seen in the public realm. In that way, the circus was an agent of reform and rebellion, and also a leveller.” Over the years, it also became a safe space for all those who had been cast out of society either for their appearance or their aptitude. Dwarfs found their calling in the circus tent, and began to symbolise the circus itself. Shrihari Nair, who handles the public relations for Gemini Circus, Jumbo Circus and The Great Royal Circus, recalls the film, Appu Raja, the story of a dwarf, which was also shot at the Gemini circus tent. “Appu Raja, initially dubbed in Tamil as Apoorva Sagodharargal, is the story of a dwarf shot on the Gemini Circus tent. Most of these people were short and they found their biggest paradise in the circus. When you see a small guy walking into the town, maybe going into a restaurant or walking into the market, the first thing people will say is look, a circus has come to town, because they symbolized the circus. And for them, the circus was and will always remain a paradise. It’s a place which gave employment to maybe hundreds and even thousands of such clowns who were born short,” says Shrihari. The circus became the chief form of family entertainment in independent India and its golden run continued till the Nineties, with more than 300 circuses setting up tents across the length and breadth of the country. The arrival of television somewhat lowered the footfall, yet people still came to watch the circus for the wild animals and daring acts. But the ban on wild animals and children under 18 from performing hit the industry hard. There are hardly 30 circuses in India right now, including the big banners like Gemini Circus, Rambo Circus, The Great Bombay Circus and a few others that are somehow staying afloat by changing with the times. Today, the circus industry is gasping for breath, waiting for some miracle to turn its fortunes around. This is first of a three-part podcast series -- Ring Masters: Untold stories of the Indian Circus. In the next two episodes, we will tell you inside stories about circus people, their struggles and how circus companies are changing their game to stay relevant.Voice: Surjan Singh, Anindya Chakravorty and Abhishek Sharma 108411763Ep 2: Circus in India: A mere shadow of its former glory after ban on animals, childrenMention the word circus, and our eyes still light up with child-like joy. It’s a fond flashback to our innocent years, spent inside a canvas tent on rickety wooden chairs, waiting -- for the roar of the lion; the tiger jumping through the fire ring; the trapeze artistes gliding on air; one tightrope act after another; the cycling chimp; the juggler’s flair and the silly tricks of the joker. But where have all the circuses gone? A long time has passed. We have grown up and the old face of the circus tent has all but vanished in this changing world. Even if we do catch a stray circus outside the city limits, the crowd is sparce and the charm is gone. Will the heydays of the circus be a fast-fading memory then? Will our children only hear stories about it? Or is there a spectacular comeback waiting in the wings? In this episode of our podcast series called Ring Masters: Untold stories of the Indian Circus, we will take you back to that magical world of jugglers, clowns and acrobats, with a keen eye on their struggle to stay relevant in a world where we are spoilt for entertainment. medium108529902Shedding the tent, and pulling off a resurrection The Pune-based Rambo International Circus held an International Circus Festival from May 25th to May 28th at the Siri Fort Auditorium in the heart of New Delhi. Tickets were sold online through BookMyShow and it received such an overwhelmingly good response that the shows had to be extended on public demand over the first week of June. Sujit Dilip, the owner of Rambo Circus, had never dreamt of such a successful run. We had caught up with him right before the show’s second innings and he was beside himself with excitement. “We came to Siri Fort and put up this festival kind of thing for four days, but it ran so successfully that people started requesting me to run more shows. My emails, my Instagram, and everything flooded with messages saying please extend the dates. Thankfully, with the help of the Ministry of Broadcasting and all the government officials, we could extend our shows for a week,” he said. Sujit’s father P T Dilip had brought together three circuses --- the Great Oriental Circus, the Arena Circus and the Victoria circus --- to form the Rambo International Circus during the Nineties. He took the circus to the Gulf countries back in those times and even had cultural tie-ups with the Russian circuses. It was one of the first circuses in India to get air conditioning in the tent. Sujit and his brother have given the Rambo circus a grand makeover. “My dad always used to tell me, beta, go for the performance in Delhi. But I wished to create something great and come to Delhi. My dad expired just a few months back. It was his birthday on 29th of May. So, I told myself I’ll make his dream come true before his birthday comes. So, after planning for a long time, I took this theatric show to Siri Fort. I had this International Festival in mind, and people from the Uzbek street circus and Russian street circus helped us put up a beautiful show,” he shared. The Siri Fort show is perhaps the first time in decades that a circus has cheered up an entire city. But, for that, Rambo circus had to shed the tent and embrace the auditorium, and completely change the character of its acts to keep up with the times. Rambo is perhaps the only circus that has been able to pull off such a resurrection. Why the circus lost out on the game Scores of other circuses, both big and small, have lost out on the game for various reasons --- the ban on animals and children from performing in circuses, lack of financers and artistes, government apathy and, of course, the prolonged pandemic. Many have merged into a single circus to make ends meet. But most of them have shut down, unable to attract audiences like before. During its prime, Gemini Circus owned as many as 20 elephants, 40 lions, 15 tigers, 30 horses, six camels, three bears and three zebras among other wild animals. Tigers, bears, monkeys, panthers and lions were banned from being trained for performing in circuses in 1998. Shrihari Nair, in charge of the public relations for Gemini Circus, Jumbo Circus and The Great Royal Circus, says, “One of the biggest challenges the Indian circus faced was when five wild animals were banned by the Supreme Court. Post that judgement, the circus was greatly handicapped as the USP of most of the Indian circuses was wild animal shows. You can see animals in the zoos, but it is only in the circus that you can see a whole lot of acts being performed by all these wild animals. That’s one of the major attractions for the children and elders. Now, post the ban, it was a big blow.” Circus historian Nisha PR says the legal battle between the circus community and the government lasted for nearly a decade. And then, hundreds of animals were seized from circuses and their trainers lost their livelihoods overnight. She speaks of animal trainers who are fondly remembered in circus lore and the special relationship they shared with their animals. Animals part of big circus family, taken away by force Damu Dhotre was a Marathi animal trainer who tamed wild animals like lions and leopards. He became internationally known in the 1940s and worked in the Russian Isako and American Ringling Brothers circuses. Fearless Madhavi, who trained tigers and lions, spent most of her life in the Indian circus tents. She is fondly remembered by many circus workers, recalls Nisha. “The interesting side of these memories is that many circus artistes remember individual animals that they worked with. Babu, who worked as an animal tamer in the Gemini Circus, narrated the story about Raja the chimpanzee who was a lovable prankster. He was the star of his item, but would never appear on stage in time. And the moment his item was over in the evening show, he would escape the ringmaster’s notice and go straight to the proprietor where he and the managers would be having a drink. Raja would sit on the owner’s lap and demand his drink. Once a manager gave him plain water and Raja threw away the glass in anger. Before he threw more tantrums, somebody fixed him a nice drink. Most of these animal trainers remember their animals as their animals, just as an animal would remember that the tamer or somebody who lived with them as their humans,” Nisha says. Sujit from Rambo circus fondly recalls the times before the ban, when they and their circus animals were like one big family. “We loved our animals like anything. I cried when my animals were taken away,” he rues, adding, “The unfortunate part is that wherever they took them, they died after six months. They should have lived longer. Had we been given a chance, just as we trained them to jump, we could have trained them to hunt in the jungle as well. They blamed us for keeping them in cages. But they took the animals and kept them in the zoo, which was like a jail for them. We were their family, we would have kept them alive. It was a punishment for us as well. We didn’t have social media at that time, or I would have put up everything online for the people to see.” Nisha shares that the poor animals were caught in the hollow human discourses of kindness and compassion. Rehabilitated in the already cramped zoos around the country, they soon perished. Historically, the zoos also had animal performances like the Chimpanzee’s Tea Party or acrobatics done by elephants. And many zoos around the world still have those performances. medium108529935KM Sanjeev, the owner of the Great Bombay Circus, also laments the loss of wild animals, saying, “The animal ban really made the audience lose interest. Even when we go to the cities now, they say ‘sher nahi hai, haati nahi hai’ --- you don’t have elephants, horses, dogs, camels, lions and tigers. Most of the rural populace in India see animals only through the circus as there are very few zoos across the country. So, after the animal ban, we lost 50 per cent of our audience. Once the Child Labour Act prevented us from working with children, we lost another 20. Now we are surviving only on 30 per cent of our audience. Moreover, there is no help from the government. Earlier, we had a lot of political support, till Mr. Vajpayee’s time. When he was the prime minister, he was a great fan of the circus. So was Mrs Gandhi. Nowadays, politicians are only after film stars because we are not a sizable vote bank.” The 1920’s Grand Bombay Circus of Maharashtra’s Baburao Kadam merged with two Kerala circuses -- the 1922 Whiteway Circus and the Hind Lion Circus -- founded by circus pioneer Keelari Kunjikannan’s nephew and Sanjeev’s granduncle K M Kunjikannan, to form The Great Bombay Circus. After Kunjikannan’s death in the 1950s, Baburao Kadam and Sanjeev’s father ran the circus till 1975. After Baburao retired and Sanjeev’s father died, he and his brother have been running the show. But times are tough, and the pandemic has made it even worse. They couldn’t celebrate 100 years of the circus as that was during the peak of Covid. The Great Bombay Circus has now begun a month-long run in Coimbatore from June 23, with three shows every day, Ethiopian artistes and an air-conditioned tent. But Sanjeev still feels there’s no circus without animals. With children gone, circus bereft of future artistes Next was the 2011 ban on training and performance of children below 18 years by the Supreme Court of India. This order directed the government to conduct simultaneous raids in all circus companies in a bid to liberate the children. “Children have figured prominently in the history of physical training in the circus. Items like High Wire, Boneless, Seesaw Acrobat, China Plate were exclusively performed by children,” stresses Nisha, adding, “Childhood cannot be treated as a romantic universal category and must be construed within the context of regional economies and social inequalities. What does it mean to be a child in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean or South America? With caste, race, gender, labour and many other intricate livelihood questions that complicate these lives, could we hold and judge these lives within the simple binary of cruelty and emancipation?” The ban on children dealt a body blow to the circus industry, which was already handicapped after the animals were gone. But what does it really mean to have no performing children? “We don’t have future artistes then,” explains Sanjeev from The Great Bombay Circus. “Gymnastic training should be given at a very young age. In Russia, America and other countries, gymnastics is part of the academic curriculum. But not in India. And they’ve got special circus training centres in most of the Russian countries. Our present artistes will last for a maximum of five to seven years. Beyond that, we have to depend on foreign artistes. There won’t be local artistes here because the body won’t be supple. You can't train a boy or girl after the age of 18 as the body will be stiff. Body must be supple and flexible to learn gymnastics,” he maintains. With the animals and children gone, there was scant prospect of shows running houseful. Coupled with that was the social stigma the circus folk faced. Everybody loved to be entertained by the circus, but it was never really in the league of art and culture. Circus performers were looked upon as the other, and seldom brought into the mainstream cultural discourse. As it is, a performer’s career was short-lived, but more often than not, it was cut shorter by injury. And when they returned home with their broken bodies, all they faced was rejection and stigma from the very families they had been earning for. Veteran journalist M G Radhakrishnan shares accounts of two women circus performers he had interviewed in the Nineties, who had had to pay a heavy price for being part of the circus. “At 52, Chirayil Saumini, India’s first celebrated woman jeep jumper, couldn’t even sit straight because her limbs were twisted with multiple fractures. She told me that she would never send her children to perform at the circus and they all went to Gulf looking for other jobs,” he recalls. Generally, a circus performer’s career is very brief. By the time a performer is over 30, he or she becomes an aged star who is slowly eased out. Radhakrishnan also speaks of Mampally Radha of Thalassery, veteran contortionist once called the Plastic Girl of India. At 38, she couldn’t even work at the beedi factory after retiring from the circus as she couldn’t sit straight owing to the excruciating pain in her back. Whatever little crowd the circus pulled was gone once the pandemic struck. Most circuses shut shop and the big ones that remained in the business are still trying to recover their losses three years on. [The song at the beginning is from the movie Mera Naam Joker, sung by Manna Dey and put up on YouTube by the Saregama music label] Voice: Surjan Singh 108411764Ep 3: The show must go on: Rethinking circus acts as theatric shows and digital modulesJeena yaha marna jaha iske siva jaana kaha…. “One of the major highlights of Gemini Circus is the Mera Naam Joker film produced by Raj Kapoor, where he himself acted as a circus clown. The entire film was shot in Gemini Circus and the song was famous not just in India, but in several foreign countries. This film showcased the whole concept of circus as an entertainer. The role of a clown who is supposed to be the symbol of a circus, how he entertains even though he has his own miseries and worries…” Shrihari Nair, who looks after the public relations for Gemini Circus, goes on to share how the circus shone during its heydays, with patronage from film stars and politicians alike. But there has been a steep fall in popularity over recent years, soon after the ban on animals and children. And the pandemic has only made things worse. A messiah to break away from traditional circus mould Aditya Shah belongs to a family from Vadodara, Gujarat, which circus owners call the Sonu Soods of the circus industry. His father Rajesh Shah and late grandfather Ramanlal Shah have been involved in the management of circuses across India for more than 80 years. “When they say Jeena Yaha Marna Yahan, they literally believe in that. I have seen generations in the circus. Some of the artistes have spent almost 60-65 years in a circus, their entire families have been there. They have grown up over there, the schooling of their kids has been taken care of by us. So, that’s the kind of dedication they have for the art. Covid has definitely taken a toll on the entire industry, because of which a lot of these small circuses have either died down or merged with the larger circuses. Some of the circuses which still exist and are doing well in India are Great Bombay, Gemini, Jumbo and Rambo. Bringing the circus to the culture ministry would really be helpful for us,” insists Aditya. Even if four circuses are doing well in India right now, it’s largely because of him. Aditya turned a messiah for the circus folks after an SOS call during the thick of the pandemic. Not only did he arrange for crowdfunding to help the artistes survive, he also re-packaged the circus acts in a bid to create a digital exposure for the industry at a time when physical shows were out of the question. They managed to raise more than Rs 1 crore worth of relief using crowdfunding platforms. This helped the circuses sustain themselves for more than four months, during which the circus owners have been able to pay for food, ration kits, basic amenities and medicines. In the final episode of our podcast series called Ring Masters: Untold stories of the Indian Circus, we tell you how the circus has reinvented itself to cater to a new kind of audience in a post pandemic world. From the tent to the theatre, and even to street corners To be honest, the Indian circuses had to look for newer ways to pull the crowd ever since the animals and the children were gone. And that’s how the theatric form of circus emerged in India. Sujit Dilip, the owner of Pune-based Rambo circus, shares his experience with this form, saying “We began doing theatric shows around 12 years ago, when Shashi Kapoor saab had come to our circus in Bandra with his daughter Sanjana Ji. I had a wish to perform at the Prithwi Theatre and I told Sanjana madam that I wanted to try out thew theatric format. I had studied about theatric shows internationally when I used to travel. So, I wanted to experiment with the form at Prithwi Theatre. She was very encouraging and spoke to her brother Kunal ji so that I could perform at the theatre. With their blessings, we performed at Prithwi Theatre more than 10 times and it was a great experience.” In fact, circus historian Nisha PR says that social and contemporary circus has been gaining popularity as a new form of entertainment in the West from the 1960s itself. “Unlike the traditional tented circuses, the youngsters who take up this vocation perform in open spaces like public parks and street corners. They seldom use animals and often mix digital technology with poetry and theatre. Social circus is being chosen by numerous youngsters in Latin America and Africa as a major professional option. And they get the opportunity to work in international companies in Europe and North America,” she says. Refashioning with contemporary ideas can attract old and new spectators alike. Nisha remembers that when the global contemporary circus, Cirque du Soleil, came to metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai, almost all their shows were running house full. “I could see there were at least a couple of Indian acrobats doing an excellent job in this global company,” she fondly recalls. Cirque du Soleil is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. It came to India in November 2018, with two breathtaking shows for Delhi and Mumbai. Rambo Circus tried to create a similar kind of magic at Siri Fort in May this year. The crowd was so pleased that the shows had to be extended till the first week of June. medium108529994Going digital, to catch the crowd in Covid times Rambo circus has been the first to experiment with the digital medium as well, clocking weekend online shows that earned handsome revenues during the pandemic. Sujit teamed up with Aditya to adapt to this new medium, also partnering with BookMyShow and Lakshya Entertainment to bring out edge-of-the-seat experiences to the comfort of ones homes. Aditya shares how it all panned out. “I am a techie, right?” he says. “I have done my engineering and MBA, and have purely been in the tech industry. I was working on my own startup when Covid struck. I’ve seen the circus shape up, but I haven’t dirtied my hands in the industry. During Covid, I got a panic call from the circus owners. They said, ‘Kuch Karo, you have to help us’.” There was no end in sight to the pandemic, and they were barely able to manage the bare necessities. If the artistes and staff were not taken care of, they would leave en masse. But crowds were banned, which made hosting a circus impossible. “And that is where I stepped in to bring a completely digital concept of the circus in India for the first time,” shares Aditya. He started interacting with Rambo’s Sujit Dilip, asking for suggestions on how to convert a physical spectacle into a digital one. “I have seen circuses in the US, UK, other places in Europe, and in different parts of the world. I told Sujit let’s do a completely digital circus with limited staff, and with whatever permissions we can get. This concept was a first for India. It was a big bet and touch wood, things went well. We got an amazing response during that time. A lot of people, especially my friends, called up to congratulate me and said they didn’t know that the circus still exists. Once people started seeing the digital presence of the circus, it came back to public memory. That’s what I have been doing post 2020, spreading the reach of the circus across various digital media and moving away from the traditional format,” explains Aditya. It took quite a bit of convincing by him to get circus owners to warm up to the digital idea. Online shows of the Rambo circus sold around 55,000 tickets, something unthinkable during Covid times. And four weekend digital shows earned as much as a 45-day physical circus run used to, at half the cost and logistics. It was definitely a win-win deal. Aditya is confident about his shows and knows that a generation consuming everything on the mobile or on the Web would lap up the new circus format. With the digital shows becoming a major hit, he now plans to go to OTT platforms with the circus and has been talking to major players already. Once a blue-eyed boy, now struggling to stay afloat “M V Shankaran, my dad, started Gemini Circus on August 15th, 1951, at Bilimora, Gujarat, along with his partner, K Sahadevan. After 1960, Gemini Circus became very popular in India and packed shows were running in major cities like Ahmedabad, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai and others. Almost all the former presidents and prime ministers of India visited Gemini Circus. The celebrities included President S Radhakrishnan, Dr Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Lady Mountbatten, Martin Luther King Junior and Morarji Desai.” Ajay, the late circus legend Gemini Shankaran’s son, has a house full of photographs where his father is seen with the public luminaries he just mentions. That was during a time when the government promoted the circus as art and sport, doling out special perks and concessions. But all that has dried up now. Ajay says they introduced new acrobatic acts with Russian, Mexican and even African artistes after the ban to keep themselves afloat. But Covid put their circus in the godown. Social organisations and corporates together helped prop up the circus after three years, But they had to begin from scratch, with no support from the government. Sujit from Rambo Circus says the circus is part of the animal husbandry ministry even though no animals are there anymore. Sanjeev from The Great Bombay Circus rues that the ministries keep shuffling. They used to be in sports and youth affairs but have now been shifted to fisheries. No one is really sure which ministry the circus falls under. But it surely doesn’t fall under the culture ministry, and all the circus owners say that’s a shame. They also unanimously agree that India should have proper circus schools to train artistes of its own, who would help sustain the industry. Sujit complains, “We don’t have any circus school here. In France, there are permanent buildings for circus schools. If you go international, there are Italian, US, Chinese and Russian circuses just because they have circus schools at their back ends. These schools churn out 5,000 to 10,000 of the artistes, which generates a lot of income and revenue for their countries. But in India, the circus is under some animal husbandry ministry even though we don’t have animals anymore. We should be represented under the culture ministry. UNESCO has put the circuses of many countries under its intangible cultural heritage. Sadly, we don’t have that umbrella. We don’t have any kind of support.” Sujit has been a member of The Fédération Mondiale du Cirque, or the World Circus Federation, for thirteen years. “All the time, I go with a flag on my chest and there are almost a hundred countries participating in international festivals, circus festivals. But I don’t see an Indian flag there. It’s a shame for me. My motto is to raise an Indian flag in these festivals. If you perform internationally, the artistes get to learn a lot and also earn a lot as the ticket prices are far more outside India. So, we can get dollars for our country,” he reasons. Sujit plans to open a circus school of his own, with international training equipment so that they don’t have to depend on performers from outside. He says he would approach the culture ministry himself, so that circus owners are given concessions, and grounds within the city to set up tents. He also hopes to get circus artistes their due respect in society as well as government perks to continue with their craft. medium108530030Biju Pushkaran, the chief clown of Rambo Circus, has been working with them for the past 26 years. He lost his wife 18 years ago and has brought up both his children on his circus earnings. Biju’s son has got a film editing job now and his daughter is doing her final year in medicine. He had not told his kids that he works for a circus for fear that they would ridicule him. But life has come full circle now, with his children showing pride in their father’s profession once they got to know. Gemini Shankaran’s son Ajay hopes for a golden comeback for the circus. He insists, “We are sure that we will be able to run the shows for many more years, as the show must go on. Jai Hind.” [The hindi dialogues at the beginning and end of the podcast have been taken from the movie, Mera Naam Joker, put up on Youtube by Saregama Music.] Voice: Surjan SinghAudio production: Sahil Gupta