Photos: Celebrating Charlie Chaplin’s 129th birthday in Gujarat

Charlie Chaplin enthusiast and impersonator Ashok Aswani, founder of Charlie Circle has been celebrating the legendary actor’s birthday since 1973 in Adipur, Gujarat. What started as homage to an idol with a simple cake on the legendary actor’s birthday cut alone, has today swelled to hundreds of Chaplin impersonators, young and old alike, taking to the streets in marches and contests every. Marking Chaplin’s 129th birth anniversary and the Charlie Circle’s 45th, 300 enthusiasts dressed as Chaplin’s iconic Tramp waddled along Adipur in a two-hour-long parade, walking sticks and fake mustaches on point.

Updated on: Apr 19, 2018 11:23 AM IST

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Wearing bowler hats and fake moustaches while carrying walking sticks, hundreds of Charlie Chaplin fans shuffled bow-legged through Adipur in Gujarat to celebrate the comic actor’s 129th birthday this week. Every year on April 16, residents of Adipur honour the legendary silent actor’s birthday by imitating his slapstick style in a parade. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Talin Mavani, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator, checks his appearance in a mirror as he stands next to images of the legendary comedian on the occasion of his birthday in Adipur, Gujarat. Participants young and old, male and female, were members of Charlie Circle, a local fan club that has been marking Chaplin’s birthday annually since 1973. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Ashok Aswani, founder of the Charlie Circle fan club, is reflected in a mirror as his daughter Monica drives him around. He was cycling to work one day in the early ‘70s when he passed a theatre showing Chaplin’s 1925 hit “The Gold Rush”. He bought a ticket and went in. Immediately hooked, Aswani watched three consecutive shows, skipping work. He was fired from his job the next day. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Ashok Aswani (L), an ayurvedic doctor by profession checks a patient at his dispensary in Adipur. Aswani discovered that he enjoyed copying the mannerisms of Chaplin’s most famous on-screen persona ‘The Tramp’ and began paying homage to his new-found idol. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Talin Mavani helps apply make-up for his grandfather Ashok Aswani during the event commemorating the actor’s 129th birthday. Earlier Aswani used to celebrate Chaplin’s birthday alone by cutting a cake. But gradually people started joining him and numbers swelled up. “We’ve done it for 44 years and this is the 45th,” Aswani said. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Talin Mavani helps his grandfather dress up during the Chaplin birthday parade organised by Charlie Circle. Crumpled suits and ties badly knotted were the costume of choice for the impersonators during the two-hour-long procession. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Young Charlie Chaplin impersonators pose for a picture during the event. On Monday, Aswani was joined by roughly 300 others, a solid turnout for an event that started with one man. Children wore Chaplin face masks while some carried life-sized cut-outs of the English-born filmmaker as a stereo loaded onto a truck belted popular Bollywood songs. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Many had used black marker pens to draw on Chaplin’s trademark toothbrush moustache while others chose to stick to fake ones. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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A drawing competition was also organized by the club to commemorate the legendary actor’s birthday,with the subject none other than the silent actor’s portrait. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)

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Mavani (C) breaks into a jig with other impersonators. He was four when he started acting and has been celebrating Chaplin’s birthday ever since then with his grandfather. And he looks to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps by succeeding Aswani as president of the Charlie Circle. (Indranil Mukherjee / AFP)