Throwback Thursday: The good old days of circus in Mumbai

Long time ago circuses ruled the roost. With adventures such as flying trapeze, hilarious jokers, amazing feats, circus treats, dare defying stunts, circuses across India enthralled all. All photos/mid-day archives

The famous circuses in Mumbai were The Great Bombay Circus, Rambo Circus, Jumbo Circus, Great India Circus, Great Golden Circus etc

The circus shows included clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, unicyclists and many more

One of the famous circus was The Great Bombay Circus. Baburao Kadam founded the Grand Bombay Circus in 1920. It toured initially in Sindh and Punjab. It then merged and then renamed Great Bombay Circus.

In the year 1997, the central government banned the use of wild animals in 1997. After which circus went on a rapid decline

The 130-year-old tradition of the Indian circus is dying as people move onto more varied forms of entertainment. 

The rates of the tickets also dipped. Earlier when it used to be Rs 100 or Rs 150, tickets now cost a mere Rs 40 to Rs 70.

Recently it was reported that the 'Great Bombay Circus' was having an extremely hard time in attracting audiences in the wake of the note ban, which came into effect last month. The report went on to add that considering the lack of interest being generated, the troupe is now considering cutting short their schedule as well.

Even as circus performers have reduced from 200 to a mere 40. In a report, Great Rambo Circus, says he faced a loss of Rs 80 lakh in Nauchandi last year.

The 'traditional' format, whereby a ringmaster introduces a varied selection of acts that mostly perform choreographed acts to traditional music, developed in the latter part of the 19th century and continued almost universally to be the main style of circus up until the 1970s