Lucky Irani Circus

Lucky Irani Circus: Getting to Know India’s Remarkable Tradition in Circus

Fortunately, this is the name of an Irani Circus that originated in India and became an inseparable part of history in terms of owning a name that was priceless in the sphere of circuses in India with enigmatic performances. It has been loving India for decades now and has entertained generations of Indians with stunts, animals and colourful performances. In this article, the reader will come to know about the journey of Lucky Irani Circus, and the destiny of circus business in India along with the shortcomings that were strictly pulled down the Circus business in our country.

Prospects of Early Development of Lucky Irani Circus

Lucky Irani Circus can be traced back its roots to the mid 1900s. The circus was invented by Mirza Ismail Baig — a genius and a circus tycoon/ The circus was launched in 1950. It started out as the Irani Circus I guess in honor of the founder and it was not long before it grew into one of the leading itinerant circuses in India. The major offices were located in Mumbai (Bombay) the city that has been historically connected with the development of circus business in India.

Earlier the name ‘Big’ was only associated with circus, but later with the growing expansion and popularity of the circus the word ‘Lucky’ was added. Lucky Irani Circus had the grand vision of the popular large-scale circus which besides the acts from different countries and astonishing animal performances always offered clowns and ambitious stunts attracting people all over India. Unfortunately, the circus had the aspects of bringing happiness and performing delightful entertainment with the twists of dancing and acrobatics typical of Indian performing arts. These Western elements combined with Indian culture thus allowed the circus build a close relation with various cultures in the country.

The Cultural Influence and Demise to Stardom

The organization developed into one of the largest circuses in India, and also one of the most famous, with huge audiences at each of the performances in the 1970s and the 1980s. This circus evolved into people’s source of entertainment that included families; the circus could be organized in big cities as well as in small towns. It was not just a circus but a complete package of amusement that included a variety of attractions such as:

Acrobatics and Aerial Performances: Among them some of them included performing trapeze artists, men forming human pyramids and much more surprised the audiences. I thought the aerial acts notably those performed at a high altitude where employees swing over the public were one of the most amazing parts of the spectacle.

Animal Acts:

Elephants, tigers and horses that were trained put up a wonderful show of loyalty accompanied by their stunning stunts. Performers could include elephant rides, tigers leaping through hoops of fire and the much publicized “lion tamers”. During this period of circus, all performers where part of a circus that included animals to the show.

Clowns and Comedy Acts:

Inthis case, the clown was very important since circus needed to be entertaining to the children as well as to the other people. There was constant laughter, the clowns conducted physical comedy, performing trick stunts and jokes, which provided a kind of antithesis to the impact of the tricks.

Daring Stunts:

Inother cases, performers would pull stunts that would involve riding on moving automobiles, executing motorcycle stunts within big round steel balls (Globe of Death) or running through hoops of flames. Such appearances instilled excitement and anticipation amongst the community, people had to go watch the circus shows.

Itmight be recalled that Lucky Irani Circus was in vogue at a time when circus had almost captured the Indian entertainment market. At the time people did not have many opportunities for entertainment and cultural experiences like modern technologies introduced with television or internet: for millions of people circuses were important sources of entertainment on par with what they might get from theater or movies today.

Taking a Look at the Lucky Irani Circus

Tomost children especially fans of the circus, the fact that animals were involved was perhaps the most appealing part. The Show was using big animals I the performance such as elephants horses along with big cats like tiger and Lions. The trained animals included dancing, jumping through hoops, balancing on balls and even the interaction between an animal and its trainer on stage.

Animals and circus performers from this period were fascinating groups of people in circus performances. Exercise riders and animal attendants would demonstrate how they took their time to train and handle such animals and sometimes do stunts for the spectators. It has to be remembered that tricks which were previously involving various wild beasts such as lions were heard to be important acts in circus.

But gradually awareness about rights of animals, in India and across the world, so did the ethical issues regarding the use of animals in circus. Opponents insisted that such acts included unsuitable training of the animal and substandard treatment of the animals in question. This lead to a rise in awareness, and eventually, several circuses, including Lucky Irani Circus, felt the clamp down an started receiving pressure to alter their interactions, or do away with animals all together.

The reasons behind the decline of Indian circus industry

The circus industry in India including the Lucky Irani Circus started declining from late 90’s and early millennium. Several factors contributed to this decline.

Competition from Modern Entertainment

When cable television came along, followed by satellite channels and internet entertainment became more varied for Indians. Theatre, films, television and online products provided a much greater choice, and the tradition of the circus became uninteresting for youth.

Animal Rights Activism

Asmore and more people became sensitive to animal cruelty, animal rights agencies started calling for ban or control of animal performances in circuses. The Indian govt has started measures to ban the use of animals in circus which had a direct impact on business and viewership.

Financial Strain

The many expenses associated with moving around the country, feeding, and taking care of the animals, as well as putting together big shows was expensive. There are many Circuses in India and every circus had one or the other problem and they fail to overcome it among of which Lucky Irani circus too had problems like funds to maintain the infrastructure required for conducting shows, the employees’ welfare etc..

Changing Audience Preferences

This meant death of the old time traditional circus as urbanization grew and the cultures of the people changed. The young people were more drawn towards new trends of fun such as theme parks, films and video games especially.

Legal and Regulatory Challenges

Already the laws that touched on animal rights, safety requirements and permits for performances restricted the ways in which a traditional circus could proceed with its operations. Most circuses either had to reduce the size of their shows or actually had to cease operations.

Legacy of Lucky Irani Circus

However the Lucky Irani Circus has its full squarely placed in the history of Indian culture. It provided as one of the major traveling circuses in the country and shaped the change in the industry of circus in India. Acrobats, clowns and animals trainers were all appreciated for their talent s and seriousness in performing and this circus led the entertainment trend in India for sometime in the future.

Currently the Lucky Irani Circus is almost obsolete and so has the conventional circus as a form of entertainment was eradicating from the Indian culture. But its existence is a part of the memories of people who have watched Cirque’s shows and something that is memorable and quite essential to the Indian populace of its earlier time in the form of circus.

Science and technology have seen the attempt to stage the circus again in the recent past but has been in an attempt to do it in a cultured way, and more to the point has been an attempt to perform it in a humane way without the use of animals. Modern circuses all over the world are trying to use balancing, tumbling, juggling and shows that do not incorporate animals as performers. These new circuses attempt to retain the traditional image of circus, but with reference to the changes that have taken place in this world.

Conclusion

There are few Indian citizens who still remember the magic of the Lucky Irani Circus because its was famous circus in the past. It captured an era of Indian entertainment industry when circuses were considered largest source of thrill, joy or surprise. However the age of circus is over still the impact left on the Indian community and the memories of the past wonderful circus performances will remain.

Itis crucial to recall the role of this phenomenon today when Indian entertainment business is expanding and becoming more complex. Lucky Irani Circus represent tradition of circus that was once very popular and brought happiness to millions of people with its fantastic show that offered the dream of bizarre fabulous world.