Inside ‘Maut Ka Kuan’: India’s Travelling Stunt Show

It’s 10 mins of pure thrill, in which stuntmen ride their bikes and cars in the confines of a wooden well.

A biker riding his bike in ‘Maut Ka Kuan’.

(Photo Courtesy: Siddharth Sharma/Shuddh Indian Dope)

‘Maut ka Kuan’ or the well of death is a thrilling entertainment act native to India’s fairs.

It’s 10 mins of pure thrill – adrenaline-pumping adventure at its best – in which stuntmen ride their bikes and cars in the confines of a wooden well. The result is gravity-defying moves, which are not for the faint-hearted.

Bikers riding in the ‘maut ka kuan’ in the Gwalior trade fair. (Photo Courtesy: Siddharth Sharma / Shuddh Indian Dope)

The riders drive up to the edge of the well – this is the closest they get to the audience – and take money from them.

‘Maut ka Kuan’ demands a lot from the riders, both physically and psychologically. Throughout the year they travel from one fair to another, from one town to another, to perform their stunts – parking all personal problems.

It’s not just bikes, even cars are driven in ‘Maut ka Kuan’. (Photo Courtesy: Siddharth Sharma / Shuddh Indian Dope)

In the 113-year-old Gwalior Trade Fair the ‘Maut Ka Kuan’ has been a start attraction for more than three decades now. But in the last 10 years, with the sudden burst of mobile and video gaming, this daredevil act is losing out to the ‘Moto GPs’ and ‘Top Bikers’. With access to thrill on their mobile screens, people barely seek adrenalin rush somewhere else.

The riders of ‘Maut ka Kuan’ drive without any safety harness.(Photo Courtesy: Siddharth Sharma/Shuddh Indian Dope)

The riders perform stunts every hour while touring. There’s no safety harness, no protection and definitely no insurance. They flirt with danger to earn a living. They know it very well that as long as their engines keep revving and the wheels keep rolling, the ‘Maut Ka Kuwa’ will survive and so will they.

(This documentary was produced by Siddharth Sharma and Siddhant Vyas for Shuddh Indian Dope)