Behind the scenes of India’s 73-year-old travelling Gemini circus Premium

It is showtime at the Gemini Circus in Chennai. We go behind the scenes and meet with some of its most beloved performers

“Do you know the Kamal film Apoorva Sagodharargal? He shot it at our theatre. With us. It was magical,” says Lakshmanan Chakyiath, the 77-year-old production manager of Gemini Circus. Referencing this 1989 tragic Tamil classic set in the contrastingly exuberant world of a circus, Lakshmanan launches into a long conversation about the history of one of India’s oldest modern circuses which began in Billimoria, Gujarat in 1951. But this story of the likes of former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee having watched the performances is one that has been oft-repeated.

The more fascinating tale is that of its people. Composed of many different physical attributes, the circus folks of Gemini have worked and trained with this company for years, beginning usually as little clowns and working their way up the ladder, sometimes quite literally, to perform stunts and become heroes of wide-eyed young children who watch the two-hour long shows in utter rapture.

We meet artists who hang from the pinnacle of the circus tents, form human pyramids and pedal cycles with their hands, to tell you their story.

The popular phrase ‘joint at the hip’ needs to be modified to fit Asmani (30) and Yaseen (25), two Swahili-speaking Tanzanians who have been part of the Gemini circus for a year now. These two acrobats who stun audiences with audacious stunts are joint at the head instead.

“I joined the circus when I was seven,” says Asmani who is from Kilimanjaro. “I was 10,” chimes in Yaseen from Zanzibar. Both these young acrobats would do flips and gymnastics to elicit claps from friends and neighbours. When the call to join a touring circus company arrived, the two jumped at the opportunity as it meant helping the family out financially.

“Tanzania did not have these big circuses. We would instead go as a group, performing fire dances, bamboo dances and other conventional acts at hotels to entertain tourists who’d arrive from different parts of the world. We learnt to do acrobatics by experimenting around each other. It was fun in the beginning. Now, it is a job like any other,” says Yaseen who is more comfortable speaking in English than Asmani is.

As part of its six member crew that continues to do fire dances and pyramids at the circus, Asmani says that it is the joy they see on people’s faces that keeps them going. They have travelled to England, Scotland and India for their performances and enjoy being in London and Liverpool the most because they find pockets of home in the land of their colonisers. “Many come up to us and want to take selfies. They want to touch our hair. It is amusing,” says Yaseen.