Moorkoth Vengakandi Shankaran, better known as Gemini Shankaran, was just 10 years old when he ran away from home in Thalassery to learn Kalaripayattu martial arts. His formative years were marked by rigorous training under Keeleri Kunhikannan, who is known as the father of the Indian circus.
By the time he was 27 years old, in 1951, Shankaran had learned to perform trapeze and horizontal bar acts, had worked at the renowned Great Bombay Circus, served in the British India Army during World War II, and had acquired the Maharashtra-based Vijay Circus. He renamed it Gemini, based on his zodiac sign. This was a turning point in not only his life but also in the history of the Indian circus industry. He founded another company called Jumbo Circus in 1977.
Shankaran’s name became synonymous with the Indian circus industry. Born in Thalassery in Kerala, he is known for his exquisite shows. His creativity was complemented by his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit. The growth of the great big Indian circus and Gemini Shankaran are inexorably linked.
In the course of his career, Shankaran had performed in front of dignitaries such as Jawaharlal Nehru, S Radhakrishnan, Zakir Hussain, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, and American civil rights leader Martin Luther King. He was even celebrated by the Indian government with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
“He bought Vijay Circus for Rs 6,000, called it Gemin Circus, and made it one of the biggest circuses in the country,” his son Ajay Shankar told ThePrint. He added that Shankaran’s first show was in Bilimora, Gujarat in 1951.
Gemini Circus became the talk of the town. It served as the backdrop for Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker (1970) and Kamal Haasan’s Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989). It gained such prominence that Shankaran and his troupe were invited by the Nehru government to participate in a circus competition held in Moscow. In an interview, Shankaran recalled how his troupe was received at Nehru’s official residence before the performance. In 1964, they were the first Indian circus group to attend the International Circus Festival in the USSR.
“Dad led a 16 member troupe and performed four or five items there,” Shankaran said. They performed in Yalta and Sochi.
Shankaran did not stop there. He took Gemini Circus to South Africa and later, the Jumbo Circus to Kuwait in 1988, according to his son. His team had performers from around the world.
After he died in 2023 at the age of 99, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was a “great loss to the art of circus in the country“. The CM hailed Shankaran for playing a vital role in “modernising the Indian circus and including foreign performers and their tricks.”
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Gentleman and a taskmaster
Though he was an excellent trapeze artist, Shankaran was not satisfied with remaining just a performer. He had a vision for what a circus should be—he did just that with Gemini.
“Circus was like oxygen for him (Shankaran). He did not look at it as a means to earn a living, but as a reason to live,” writer Thaha Madayi told the BBC. He had collaborated with Shankaran to co-author Malakkam Mariyunna Jeevitham, loosely translating to When Life does a Summersault.
Ravindra E, popularly known as Ravi Ustad, who worked closely with Shankaran at Gemini Circus from the age of 13, remembers him as a person with “no ego”.
“I still work in his company with his children. All his values of simplicity are also imbibed into his children who now run the circus,” said Ravindra, who now works as a trainer at Jumbo Circus.
In a way, the circus was Shankaran’s extended family. Ajay, who is a partner at Gemini Circus, called his father a “taskmaster”. At the same time, he described his father’s relationship with his artists as that of a ‘family’. He was always there to help out his troupe members during festival celebrations or weddings.
“He gave dresses to his employees on Diwali, and never did shy away from loaning them money when they needed it,” Ajay said.
As the leader of the circus, Shankaran also had to take care of the animals. Before 1998 when the government banned bears, Shankaran’s troupe had monkeys, tigers, panthers and lions from being trained as performing animals.
By then, Shankaran had retired at the age of 68, entrusting the circus to his sons.
“In my initial days at the circus, he refrained from getting involved or helping me out. He asked me to make my own path and rise if I fall into a pit,” added Ajay.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)