Udaipur-based illusionist plans to open magic academy

Conjuring up spells has been a vocation for Anchal Kumawat ever since she was a five-year-old girl. After startling people on live shows and dumbfounding them on television, the illusionist, now aged 22, plans to open an academy of magic.
Popular as 'Anchal - The Magic Girl,' Kumawat first started performing in Udaipur and later starred on televison shows like 'India's Magic Show' and 'India's Got Talent.'
"My dad was interested in magic and learned more about it as a hobby. But since by profession he was a mining engineer, he didn't get much time to practice magic. Nevertheless, he used to collect all sorts of magic props and had set up a small magic shop in Udaipur.

"Since it was the city's first magic shop, people used to flock to it and in the evenings there was always a huge crowd of people in the shop," says Kumawat.
The shop, she says became her 'school' for learning magic.
"Papa used to take me with him to the shop. I used to sit there and watch him. I was barely one and a half or two years old. So you can say that I have never played with dolls or toys but since my childhood, I have always played with magic," says the magician.

In 1997, she gave her first performance, a 25 minute show at her school's annual function.

"People really appreciated me then. And next day the kind of coverage the media gave to my performance it became a turning point of my life," Kumawat recalls.
"The first time I saw my picture in a newspaper I was on cloud nine. Even my father thought that if I could achieve this much with little effort, then I could achieve greater heights if I put in more hard work. So then my father decided that he'll take me forward in this profession.
As 'Baby Anchal', the illusionist began doing shows "going in and around Udaipur on a bicycle with my father and mother". Soon, she says, people used to call her to do single shows.

The magician who has completed a post-graduation in psychology says she began to take magic as a profession in the year 2001 and since then has her own full fledged team of performers.
"Right now 40 to 50 people work with me. And my team members are not only from Rajasthan but Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar. In fact, at a point of time, I even had people from Karnataka," says Kumawat.
Comparing her performances in India with those she did internationally, Kumawat says domestic enthusiasm for magic shows was comparably lesser.
"I have done shows in China, South Korea and Mongolia but when I compare it with India, I feel the craze for magic has reduced. Somewhere I feel that the government hasn't done much for the magicians," says Kumawat.