Indian circus sustains with lucrative foreign acts

With peril staring at the face of the performers, Jumbo Circus strives hard to make ends meet in this modernised society. Started by M. V. Shankaran in 1977, Jumbo Circus, which was once the hub of entertainment and leisure hangout spots for families, is experiencing tough time post the animal ban ordered by the government. Now the only ray of hope that remains for these entertainers is sustaining with their innovative and daring acrobatic acts.

The pioneers are now resorting to challenging acts such as trapeze, human torch, dare-devil acrobatic, balancing acts and African fire dance, which are performed by artists risking their lives, for half the crowd, that they had witnessed decades ago. “Our tent was about 150 feet long 10 years ago with a capacity of 3000 seats. ‘Full house’ in circus is a rare scenario nowdays,” says Subramani who has been arranging tents and structures for the Jumbo Circus since its inception.

Talking about the artistes, Subramani reveals that only a few seems to fall in love with this profession but many take it up just to make their ends meet. A good example are the dwarfs we often see in the ring.

Sanjay (37), an experienced performer from Bihar, says, “I perform here as a joker, as I was born with a condition called dwarfism. In my home state, people don’t give the respect we deserve. I escaped from my house and joined circus to save myself.” Sappan (23), from Assam, was brought to the company by the people of his own village. “We were shamed in our own state but South India gave us shelter,” he says.

Another hurdle these artistes face, is rise in the age limit of the children to be inducted into the circus. “We used to train children from the age of nine before a decade. Only then they can master the tricks and stunts down the lane. Nowadays, with 16-year-olds joining the circus, flexibility and fitness are out of question,” says Ramar (67), a trainer for acrobatic acts.

“I hail from Madurai, I am the only performing artiste you can witness from South India in this circus. Many performers quit, citing reasons such as age limit and better prospects outside of this circus world. Indian performers don’t have that affinity towards this art anymore. Since the number of Indian artistes have reduced, professionals from all over the world have started stepping onto the Indian circus,” he adds.

While other circus companies like Gemini and Royal shut down after the ban of performing animals earlier this year, Jumbo Circus stays optimistic and survives by including foreign acts. “Dangerous stunts like weight lifting and acrobats are not done by Indian artistes. Foreigners’ daring acts cannot be matched by the Indian artistes, who train from a fairly mature age,” says Welson, the manager of Jumbo Circus.

Experts from Tanzania, Australia, Russia and South America enthrall the crowd with heavy lifting, acrobatic and other advanced acts. This addition to the circus helps the management to run the show despite many hurdles. “It is rather sad to see the dwindling number of native artistes,” says Welson. 

Antony, a Tanzanian weight-lifter, manages to lift a 70 kg iron ball, clamping the holder in his mouth and simultaneously lifts a 45 kg iron ball in each hand. Similarly, aerial couple ballet, fabric dance, trapeze and globe of death are some of the other stunts that can be seen only in Jumbo Circus with foreigners taking the pride for these acts.

“137 years has passed ever since the first circus in India. There are no government schemes even to cover the health of our artists. We entertain with our life at stake, helping hand from the authorities by recognizing circus as a traditional art will help us to do better,” he concludes.