Angry Man of Television

I had never been fan of MTV Roadies. I use to think that the show is all about just road and bikes and it never interested me (non-adventurous). Then I started watching this show like two years back on recommendation of a school friend who happened to be working with the crew sometime back. I didn’t know where to start from. So I started with auditions of that year’s season. And then checked few randomly from previous seasons as well. I have to say they were awesome. I was hooked on to the auditions. That was when I first saw Raghu and his twin brother Rajiv. Ranvijay was also one of the three judges. My first surprise was that they were identical twins. I had never seen or heard of identical twins in real life. Only in films (fake obviously). Both the brothers not only look similar but also their behavior, mannerism, voice qualities are similar. Off course watching over and over you can easily differentiate between the two. 

Few months back there was big news in market that Raghu has left roadies. Then I heard that both brothers were asked to leave the show because of their rash behavior on television on show with contestants. I guess latter could not be true.  As Rajiv left show life few years back only, may be after season 9. Raghu announced his retirement at grand finale of Roadies X but then again he was back on auditions, journey of X 1. Later this speculation they themselves came out and clarified whole matter. Now finally he has left the show and moved on.

You must be wondering why I am sharing all this information. The thing is I really liked Raghu on television. He is one of the few celebrities who can really speak up their mind. I was hooked to auditions more than actual journey (sorry Raghu). I am an observer and I enjoy watching reactions of people to a certain situation. It was really fun to watch so many interesting people in the auditions. Some were really funny. For me auditions were all about Raghu. I was always excited to see whether this contestant will be able to impress him. What will be the reaction of Raghu to this? Whether he is smiling, he is angry, he is pissed off or what he is thinking? I use to gauge his reactions carefully. Two things that really pissed Raghu were poor mindsets and fake people. He always asked people to be themselves and I think this is the most difficult thing to do for many. People want to be someone else. There was a guy who said he has straight connection with God. Then there was a girl who cleared the very difficult one of the army exams and she had such a poor mindset that really pissed him off. There were few who said if a girl is wearing short dress and if she gets raped that it’s girls fault (like most of believers in our so called great India). In fact I as an audience used to fume about ill thinking. Then how can short tempered person like Raghu was able to tolerate that candidate. He use to get reaaalllyyyyy angry. He would shout abuse. But that was the theme of show. They weren’t the auditions of Indian Idol. Then there was his other side as well. He uses to meet many contestants who will come from faraway places just to greet him. I remember one of the guys Aniket, who was coming every year and for some reason Raghu and other judges couldn’t just select him. Raghu sat down near to him and sang song for him. Then there was a guy who was a bully and after coming on roadies audition he got his lesson. Next year we could see his new avatar (positive). People say he is an angry man on television, but I say honest people angers the most. 

I don’t what world has to say about him. For me he just tried to bring change in mindset of few Indian people. May be his ways were sometimes not really correct. Also Roadies won’t be same without him. I don’t think I am gonna watch it again. For me Roadies was all about Raghu. No Raghu, no roadies for me. 

I would like to wish him good luck for his future and hope to see him soon with another great show. 

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Megha Gupta