Drumbeats and exciting roars of the crowd filled the air. The mood was wild and electric. Thrissur city turned into a sea of stripes and spots as more than 250 ‘human tigers and leopards’ pranced about the streets in a rollicking show of Pulikali. Leaving their dens, ‘tigers’ of five contingents from Ayyanthole, Viyyur, Sitaram Mill Lane, Sakthan and Kanattukara stormed the city to give a carnivalesque finish to the Onam celebrations. The human tigers, who regaled thousands who thronged the Swaraj Round and its bylanes, appeared in all possible colours. They came in blue, black, fluorescent green, and even pink.
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#thrissur #Pulikali #ThrissurPulikalli #OnamCelebrations #KeralaOnamCelebrations #FemaleTigress #NimishaBijo
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Drum beats and exciting roars of the crowd filled the air.
00:15 The mood was wild and electric.
00:18 Thrissur city turned into a sea of stripes and spots as more than 250 human tigers and
00:24 leopards in a rollicking show of pulikali.
00:27 Leaving their dens, tigers of five contingents from Ayanthol, Viyur, Sitara Mill lane, Sakthan
00:33 and Kanatukara stormed the city to give a carnival-esque finish to the Onam celebrations.
00:40 The human tigers who regaled thousands, who thronged the Swaraj round and its bylanes
00:45 appeared in all possible colours.
00:47 They came in blue, black, fluorescent green and even pink.
00:53 Women too have been ensuring their presence in the past few years since they created history
00:58 by storming into the male bastion of pulikali in 2016.
01:02 The female tigress who excited the city of Thrissur by shining as a tigress in the famous
01:06 pulikali of Thrissur this year is becoming a star on social media.
01:11 So who is she?
01:13 She is none other than Nimisha Biju, a TV actress and the heroine of Santosh Pandit's
01:19 new film.
01:20 This is the first time that an actor from the film industry is playing the role of a
01:24 tiger.
01:25 After hearing the news of Nimisha Biju as Puli through social media, thousands of fans
01:29 flocked to watch the performance of this young actress.
01:33 This performance was done for the people through a week-long special training and fasting.
01:37 The pictures of the actor have already been taken over by the social media.
01:41 Nimisha, who was snubbed by another Desham before being accepted by Sitara Mill, said
01:46 that she was eagerly waiting for this opportunity.
01:48 "I have been watching Pulikali for many years and always wanted to participate in
01:52 it.
01:53 I contacted the organisers of various Deshams for six months.
01:56 They replied that it was really risky to take care of the women tigers in the crowd, which
02:00 was nothing but an excuse.
02:02 Anyhow, I have finally got an opportunity," said Nimisha.
02:06 As usual, pot-bellied tigers ruled the show.
02:09 Pulikali squads hunt for such performers, otherwise bullied for their huge tummies,
02:13 as faces of tigers can be drawn well on big bellies.
02:17 There were some skinny tiger cubs too who cartwheeled and some assaulted to regale the
02:21 audience.
02:22 There are no rigid rules for the dance movements.
02:25 Each artist creates his own style.
02:27 Outsiders may criticise it as a crude belly dance, but for the people of Thrissur, Onam
02:31 celebrations cannot be complete without Pulikali.
02:34 The huge crowd goaded the dancers to let loose their best roars and growls.
02:38 The tigers broke into wild dance steps.
02:40 Scenes such as tigers preying on other animals and tigers being hunted were enacted in between.
02:45 Pulikali, believed to have originated two centuries ago as a street dance form, became
02:50 part of Onam celebrations later.
02:52 Once dismissed as a rather obscene performance, it gained popularity after certain rules about
02:57 the style and dance steps were introduced.
03:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]