History of Circus in India (Father of Indian Circus)

Ask anyone who grew up in India before the 90s about the circus, and watch their eyes light up. There was something about that big tent pitched on an empty ground at the edge of town, the smell of hay and sawdust, the drumroll before a stunt, the way the whole crowd would gasp together when someone jumped through a hoop of fire. It wasn’t just entertainment. For a lot of families, it was the biggest outing of the year.

But where did all this actually come from? The history of the circus in India is older than most people think, and it starts with one stubborn man who got insulted by an Italian showman and decided to prove him wrong.

Before the Circus, There Was Already a Show

India didn’t need anyone to teach it how to entertain a crowd. Long before anyone used the word “circus” here, there were traveling performers going from village to village doing rope walking, juggling, animal tricks, and acrobatics. That tradition is centuries old.

What India didn’t have was the specific format we now call a circus — a ring, a ringmaster, trained animals, trapeze acts, ticketed shows, the whole package. That model came in from outside, and the person who brought it home and made it Indian was a man named Vishnupant Chatre.

The Insult That Started It All

In 1879, an Italian circus owner called Giuseppe Chiarini brought his troupe, the Royal Italian Circus, to Bombay. Vishnupant Chatre, who worked as a stable keeper and riding master for the Raja of Kurduwadi, went to see the show along with the Raja. Chatre wasn’t some random spectator either — he knew horses inside out and had trained as a classical singer too, so he understood performance.

Here’s the part people love — Chiarini apparently made a snide comment that Indians weren’t capable of putting together a circus of their own, and that it would take them years to even try. That one line stuck in Chatre’s head. Instead of shrugging it off, he took it personally and decided he’d show Chiarini exactly how wrong he was.

He bought a good part of Chiarini’s equipment, teamed up with his wife (who was already trained as a trapeze artist and animal handler), and started building something of his own.

The First Circus in India

On March 20, 1880, at the Kurundwad Palace Grounds in Maharashtra, Chatre put on the very first show of his own circus company, the Great Indian Circus. That date is now treated as the actual birthday of a circus in India. And that’s really the answer whenever someone asks about the first circus in India — it’s this one, born out of a wounded ego and a lot of self-taught skill.

Chatre earned the title “Father of Indian Circus” for this, and honestly, it’s well deserved. He wasn’t backed by any government or big investors. He just built it from scratch with his wife and a bit of borrowed equipment, and it worked.

His circus didn’t stay confined to Maharashtra either. It toured across North India, moved down to Madras, crossed over to Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka), and later even performed in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and Japan. Not bad for a company that started out in a small princely state.

Kerala Is Where Circus in India Really Took Off

Maharashtra gave birth to the Indian Circus, but Kerala is where it grew into something huge. When Chatre’s troupe toured Thalassery in the late 1880s, he crossed paths with a man named Keeleri Kunhikannan, a Kalaripayattu and gymnastics trainer. The two of them struck a simple deal — Kunhikannan would train young local talent, and Chatre would give them jobs in his circus once they were ready.

That agreement ended up creating India’s first proper circus training school. And it changed everything for that little town. For decades afterward, an enormous number of circus performers, trainers, and even future circus owners came out of Thalassery. People still refer to it as the circus capital of India, and it’s genuinely earned that name.

The Golden Years

Once people saw that a circus could actually run and thrive in India, more companies followed. Chatre eventually merged his circus with one owned by his cousin, and together they formed the Karlekar Grand Circus, which stayed in business until 1935. After that came names most older Indians will instantly recognize — Gemini Circus, Great Bombay Circus, Rajkamal Circus, Kamala Circus, and Jumbo Circus, among others. A lot of the people who ran these companies had trained in that same Thalassery school, so in a way, it all traces back to Chatre and Kunhikannan.

By the middle of the 20th century, the famous circus in India wasn’t just a niche act — it was mainstream family entertainment. Big tents, trained elephants and tigers, trapeze artists flying overhead, clowns making kids laugh, tightrope walkers holding the crowd’s breath. This was peak Indian circus, and it stayed this way for a long time.

A Few Facts People Don’t Usually Know

Vishnupant Chatre wasn’t just remembered as a circus man. Bombay University actually gave him the honorary title of “Professor” for what he did for the arts. His wife deserves a mention too — she was one of the earliest women in India known to perform trapeze acts and train wild animals, which was a fairly bold thing for a woman to be doing at that time.

Thalassery’s reputation as a circus training hub isn’t just old folklore either — even now, a good number of performers across Indian circus companies can trace their training back to schools in that region. And the touring history is wild when you think about it — Indian circus troupes were performing in Southeast Asia and Japan decades before international travel became the normal thing it is today.

One thing that really changed the game for Indian Circus was the ban on using wild animals like lions, tigers, and monkeys in shows, which came into effect in the 1990s and 2000s. A lot of circus companies simply couldn’t survive that shift and shut down. Others had to reinvent their entire show around human performers only.

Where Indian Circus Stands Now

You won’t see those massive tents pop up in every town anymore. Television, movies, and now phones have pulled away a huge chunk of the audience that circuses used to depend on. But it hasn’t disappeared completely. A handful of companies are still running, mostly leaning on human skill — gymnastics, acrobatics, choreography — instead of animals. And Kerala’s training schools are still producing performers, some of whom go on to work with international circus groups. So the tradition hasn’t died, it’s just had to shrink and adapt.

FAQs

Who is known as the father of the circus in India?

That title belongs to Vishnupant Chatre. He started the Great Indian Circus in 1880, which is recognized as the country’s first circus, and pretty much built the foundation for everything that came after.

When did the first circus in India actually begin?

The Great Indian Circus held its first show on March 20, 1880, at Kurundwad Palace Grounds in Maharashtra. That’s the date most people point to as the real start of the circus in India.

Why is Thalassery in Kerala so closely tied to the Indian circus?

Because that’s where Chatre teamed up with trainer Keeleri Kunhikannan to set up a training system for young performers. That partnership basically created a pipeline of circus talent that shaped the industry for generations.

Why did so many circuses in India shut down over time?

A big reason was the ban on using wild animals in performances. Companies that had built their shows around lions, tigers, and elephants had to either close or completely redesign their acts around human performers.

Does circus still exist in India today?

It’s much smaller than it used to be, but yes, some companies are still active, especially in and around Kerala, performing at fairs and local festivals to keep the tradition going.