Tough guys last the course
LIZA GEORGE
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MTV Roadies Season Four promises to be tougher than the earlier editions.
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You travel, face various tasks and adventure with people you have just met Rannvijay
PHOTO S. GOPAKUMAR
FIRST AMONG EQUALS: Rannvijay Singh Singha says a roadie acquires confidence.
It will be a survival test of the toughest and fittest from among the 13 selected for the MTV Hero Honda Roadies Season four.
India's first adventure-reality show, the programme, which started in 2003, tests the spirit and pluck of a group of youngsters under 25 as they travel cross country on bikes facing various climatic conditions and challenges.
While the final five roadies get a Hero Honda Karizma bike each, the man or woman left standing at the end of the show gets a bike and Rs. 5 lakh.
"Roadies has travel, adventure, drama, touch of voyeurism... As the show is unscripted, you know the emotions and the dialogues exchanged are real," says Raghu Ram, senior supervising producer, MTV and director, Roadies.
Being a roadie is no walk in the park according to the winner of Roadies Season One, Rannvijay Singh Singha, who is the current host of the show and a VJ of the channel.
PHOTO S. GOPAKUMAR
MAN BEHIND THE SCENES: Roadies has travel, adventure, drama, touch of voyeurism... says Raghu Ram.
"You travel, face various tasks and adventure with people you have just met. You stay in various places, conditions and can't afford to be a finicky eater. There is no privacy. The experience makes you tougher. If any problem comes your way, your attitude will be, `bring it on.' You end up confident. You can see it too in the way a roadie talks and walks," says Rannvijay.
The bond that forms during the journey, he says, is lasting.
"You may crib, have differences of opinion and try to up the other, but be it four days or two weeks, you will definitely form a bond. You form so many memories with them," says Rannvijay as he recalls with a smile the incident where the members of his group had to dress up as super heroes and walk in the middle of a busy street and when they had to cross dress and enter a pub.
The roadies also have to face various challenges such as bungee jumping, walking on fire and ice-cream eating competition.
"That's where I come in. As the middleman between the crew and roadies. I tell them where their next stop is and the task they have to undertake. As I have gone through it all, the new roadies can't say, "You do it" as I have and will. Besides, having been one, I know how their minds work," says Rannvijay.
A step ahead
However, the present team of roadies are prepared. "Roadies 2 saw Roadies 1, Roadies 3 saw 1 and 2, so they know what to expect. When we tell them hand me your cell phone and money they know we mean it. They are prepared to be voted out and face the challenges ahead. But we will be a step ahead," he says.
This year's show promises to be tougher and filled with twists and turns. They will be travelling on bikes amid gruelling situations across 8,500 km of terrain. The journey starts from Kovalam and ends at Sikkim's capital, Gangtok.
Says Raghu, "Reel life villain Gulshan Grover turns real time villain."
The group flagged off from a resort in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, on September 2.
Episodes of the show will be telecast on the channel from November.
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