Iconic Rambo Circus founder Panachamuttil Thomas Dilip passes away to leave behind a legacy that his team of performers say is a tough one to match
Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
It was in Vengurla, a small town in Maharashtra, that Philip became Dilip, perhaps a Konkani twist on the Anglican name. As head of the Shiv Sena shakha, he also didn’t want to ruffle any feathers with his religious background. His son, Sujith Dilip, tells us he was originally from somewhere in Kerala. “He was a naughty child, so he was sent to St Patrick’s in Pune,” Sujith tells us over the phone from Pune. “But whenever he came back, he would manage a dilapidated circus in Vengurla. That’s where his journey as a showman started. He first started a travelling carnival called Johnson and Johnson.”
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It eventually led to Dilip starting Rambo Circus in the 1980s—a mix of a few other circuses he bought with names such as Victoria and Great Oriental. “He was looking for a name that defined strength,” says Sujith. Dilip passed away on October 27, when Rambo’s performers were putting up a show at St Andrews auditorium in Bandra. When the performers on stage found out, they held a moment of silence and went on with the show… as Dilip would have wanted.
This writer last saw Rambo Circus in 2017 when they were set up at Bandra. This time we experienced it in Borivli West on a Thursday afternoon.
Rambo Circus has always seen the participation of international performers, like this group from Africa, and Russian acrobats
The stress of a long working day dissolves in the laughter of clowns, the bendy moves of the sequin-clad ladies who twirl high above us, balance candles, and do the hula hoop. Then there are men who swallow swords and walk high up in the air. The music blares loudly (English and Hindi hits from the ’90s) as a smattering of children and adults sometimes gape, sometimes look unimpressed, but most of the time clap and smile. It’s a different world out here, at the circus.
Backstage, head clown and host Biju Pushkaran tells us it is a world he doesn’t like leaving. He doesn’t go out or socialise—this world is enough for him. He met Dilip 26 years ago when he was an alcoholic and a no-good vagrant, picking up a fight wherever he could. But Dilip set him right. “He gave me a chance to be a clown, and then told me to be the best, most unique clown ever,” says Pushkaran who called Dilip, Bapuji after the father he never knew. “His belief in me made me give up my vices. Now even if a person hits me, I won’t fight back. He told me, ‘I have put you on my shoulders and I will help you, but if you fall from here, it will take a long time to get back on again’. So I decided to not let him down.” He is sitting next to a bike that he says he bought because Dilip gave him the permission to. “ “He had the habit of involving himself in everyone’s personal lives,” he adds, “And he helped us all. He paid for surgeries, and bikes... he took care of us.”
Head clown Biju Pusjkaran says that Dilip pulled him out of an alcoholic life and made him a upstanding citizen. Pics/Pradeep Dhivar
Pushkaran remembers a time the circus performed in Kalyan. “Some troublemakers started vandalising the circus, so the neighbourhood people came and helped us get rid of them. Later, they told us that Dilip had helped a whole colony build their homes!”
Much like he took care of Manoj, who came to the circus when he was 10 years old. Since then, he has learnt how to be an acrobat and these days handles the production backstage. “I came with my mother, and didn’t have a father. But Dilipji became my father,” he says.
A gymnast shows off shows off her moves at Rambo Circus, currently stationed in Borivli West
Raju Isaac, Rambo’s manager, who has been with the circus for 25 years now, says that Dilip set up the base and left the circus to them now. All they can do is make it better and bigger.
In the past, it saw stunts by animals including big cats. Now, it’s mainly dogs who perform tricks, and the odd elephant who ambles on stage
His son Sujith’s dream now is to take the circus international; it’s something he has to do for his father. “He was my teacher,” says the 48-year-old, as the circus gets ready to perform for a fancy crowd at High Street Phoenix at the end of this month. “He taught me lessons the hard way, and I used to wonder why he was testing me. It was later that I realised it was good for me. He let me travel and see circuses all over the world. He gave me a free hand to educate myself. We keep changing the circus, as the one thing my dad said was to keep up with the generation. He would watch concerts on TV, and then during dinner time say, ‘We need to have this kind of lighting and this kind of animation’.”
According to Sujith, Neetu Kapoor would leave a little Ranbir Kapoor at Dilip’s circus in Juhu, cautioning against giving him cold drinks. But as Dilip would buy him Gold Spot, he became ‘Gold Spot uncle’
To this writer, Dilip seems a visionary. Watching the Rambo circus in the world we live in now, with instant entertainment on our phones, is a detox worth taking. You marvel at the wonders on stage—twisting, contorting, making a fool of themselves, but never letting the smile wear off. If we suffered any blues trekking to the circus venue, they are gone now. As Pushkaran recalls, “During the pandemic, we were depressed. Life without the circus was hard. I had a thought of ending my life. One night, he spoke to me till 3 am. He said, ‘To die, one second is enough. To live, we have so many’. That made me see the light!”
Us too, Biju.
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