They thrive to give you a great time

The Great Bombay Circus is back again with a bang in Mangalore after a long gap of 20 years. As many as 75 artistes including those from Russia and Africa along with a few show animals have laid their tent in the city only to provide visual treat to the audience in the form of breathtaking acts.

Limbo, fire dance, rope-skipping pole acrobatics, cube pyramid juggling, American Limping Board, Chinese candle balance are the acts to name a few which are making a hit among the public. Three shows performed daily will last till the end of April.

The Great Bombay Circus which has a history of 90 years is based in Kerala and is looked after by Sanjay Nair family. Having the credit of being the oldest and the greatest circus company of India, GBC has witnessed several transformation since its inception till date. From the complicated circus stunts to the comparatively safe acts, from the active stunts by the animals to the fading animal stunts, the Great Bombay Circus has seen it all.

Speaking to City Herald, the GBC Manager K S Ashok Kumar said, their circus company consisting of well trained 30 male and 60 female artistes is doing its best to offer an exciting journey of circus to the audience.

Generally, the people have a negligent attitude towards the circus artistes as they belive circus is not a respectable profession. Fighting all the odds, these hard working artistes stake their life at risk for two reasons namely, to maintain their livelihood and to entertain the audience, he said.

Running a circus camp is not easy as one assumes, but the company has to shell on an average Rs 75,000 a day to provide salary to the employees, for their food, stay, rearing the animals etc.

Informing about the profit and expenditure, K S Ashok Kumar said, as many as 2,000 seats have been fixed in the camp.

The company would earn Rs 50,000 a day if the chairs are occupied to some extent. The circus business is not profitable anymore as the people don’t turn up to watch circus these days. It might be because of the impact of electronic media, he said. The company at present shelters 64 animals including elephants, horses, camels and birds.

With the government banning the use of few animals in the circus, the circus shows seem to have lost the good old glory they once enjoyed.

“We don’t regret for being unable to use the animals in the circus as we think we are doing our best to replace the loss with some innovative stunts staged by the artistes. Yet, we rear few animals without expecting any profit, because they are just like a part of our family,” he says with utmost fondness.

The team consists of the artistes from states like West Bengal, Nepal, Kerala and also from Russia and Kenya. Sharing her experience in GBC, an artiste Zareena from Russia said, having undergone circus training in Russia for three years at Tashkent Circus College, she flee to India to experience the Indian circus. It is quite different to work in Russia and in India.

“If circus is considered as a serious profession there in Russia, it is quite sidelined in India. However, the Russians feel Indian circus is good and vice versa,” she remarked.

For most of the artistes, it is like a lifetime experience to work in GBC, as the company has a longstanding history, a history which the company staff consider as prize worthy.

He is the ‘Bade Chacha!’

Those who have watched GBC, must have seen and admired a little clown who mesmirises the audiences with his fulfilled actions. Any idea what must have been his age? Well, this 63-year-old, three feet height Tulsi Das is still the most active artiste in the team. Tulsi Das who joined GBC when he was 12-year-old, is still the same humble and the senior most artiste in the troupe who is fondly called as Bade Chacha by his younger colleagues.

Expressing his love towards the circus company, he says, “I fell ill few years back and I had to undergo operation following which I decided to quit my job and went to my hometown in Bihar. But it was when I realised that circus has occupied my entire life. I was not able to stay at home even for few months, thus I landed up in circus tent once again,” he informed.

Recalling his experience of acting with the Tamil actor Surya in his yet to be released movie ‘Seventh Sense,’ Tulsi Das said he had a wonderful time working with the movie crew. The cinema team stayed with GBC for 11 days and we were all part of the cinema shooting, he said.