Gemini Sankaran
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A brief biography
Rajeev KR, April 25, 2023: The Times of India
Kozhikode:M V Sankaran, also known as Gemini Sankaran, transformed a boy’s dream of the old-time circus into founding and owning India’s top circuses like Gemini and Jumbo. The fifth of the seven children of school teacher Kavinissery Raman Nair and Kalyani Amma, he was born in 1924 near Thalassery — the cradle of Indian circus.
Sankaran grew up on the front edge of live entertainment, smitten by a one-man act called Kittunni Circus when he was 10. He went on to occupy a ringside seat in the growth of Indian circus over the past seven decades — as a performer in his youth and as the most successful circus entrepreneur in later years.
Achievements
In the heydays of the Indian circus, Sankaran had entertained dignitaries such as former PMs Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri, former President S Radhakrishnan, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda with his shows.
Trained by Keeleri Kunhikannan, the guru to countless circus performers at Chirakkara, he enlisted in the military in 1942 and at the end of World War II, he returned to Thalassery in 1946. He joined the Circus and Gymnastic Training Centr e founded by Kunhikannan’s disciple M K Raman, where he mastered the horizontal bar anddeath-defying feats on the flying trapeze.
Sankaran moved to Kolkata’s Bose Lion Circus as a t rapeze artiste in 1948 with a monthly salary of Rs 300. He then shifted to Great Raymon and Great Bombay circuses, before buying Vijaya Circus in 1951 for Rs 6,000, which made him and part ner K Sahadevan owners of two lions, one elephant and a torn two-pole tent.
Sankaran named the company Gemini Circus after his birth star. It became a leading circus over the years wi th topclass performers and “imported” animals. In 1964, Gemini became the first Indian circus to attend the International Circus Festival inthe USSR.
Gemini found movie fame as Raj Kapoor’s “Mera Naam Joker” was shot extensively in its tent. Many other films followed suit. Sankaran founded Jumbo Circus in 1977 and made it one of the most popular in the country.
The industry’s fortunes waned with the banning of wild animals from circuses in 1998. This led to an end to acts by lions, tigers and animals — and many people didn’t want to see a show without them.
See also
Gemini Sankaran
