At a time when people switch jobs for better prospects, Thulasi Das Chaudhary is content with his job of making people laugh. He has been working as a circus clown for the past 60 years with The Great Bombay Circus company.
Though many of his peers have retired from circus, Thulasi Das, who turned 72 recently, has never thought about calling it a day. He is on his fourth visit to Kannur as part of the Bombay Circus.
“It is easy to make someone cry, but it is a Herculean task to make someone smile,” Thulasi Das, who put on the clown’s costume at the age of 12, said.
A native of Bihar, he joined the circus company when he was studying in school.
It was a glorious period when people voluntarily joined circus for the charm of it. Besides cinema, circus was the only attraction for people, he recalled.
He has witnessed both the good and bad times of circus in the country. Circus companies faced a setback when the use of wild animals for entertainment was banned by the government. Though not many want to join circus now, it still employs several people, like Thulasi Das who acted in more than six films.
Thulasi Das said cinema had a great role in glorifying circus. But that has been lost, he rued.
