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ANOTHER BEGINNING Past Roadies Ranvijay and Bani with ‘dictator’ Raghu Ram at the launch of MTV Hero

The MTV guys know the secret of effective packaging. Even their hyperbole gets you. And their MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5.0 is marketed with a generous dose of it. Sample this pre-audition promo: "If being mean, unfair and vindictive comes easy to you then push your way to the front of the line for the chance to travel the world on a mean machine - Hero Honda Karizma!" Raghu Ram, the brain behind this reality show, has always been projected as a `dictator'. His tonsured head actually making this image of him believable.

Before the auditions of MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5.0 got underway, we learnt that he had become downright rude. And that he and VJ Nikhil Chinnappa were sharpening their claws. As the human mind revels in make-believe, these expressions of exaggeration worked.

With the auditions in five cities (Kolkata, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai) over and 13 candidates having survived without a scratch, we are on to next stage where seven men and six girls will discover the truth in the tag line for Roadies 5: "The Game Gets Nastier. No Surprises This Year_ Only Shocks!"

These roadies are on a different terrain - Thailand and Malaysia. In a telephonic interview, Raghu Ram says, without any trace of rudeness, that these countries were chosen to add more exotica to the show. Here, they could find themselves out of their depth in more ways. From cuisine to language, they'll have a whole load of unfamiliar things to get used to.

He also admits having chosen these countries over the United States or the United Kingdom because of MTV Roadies is on a budget. "As reality shows go, this is on a shoestring."

When asked why cities like Bangalore and Chennai have been bypassed for the auditions, he says, "Based on past experiences,

We have kept a few cities out of the list. These cities recorded a poor turnout at the auditions. People there enjoy watching Roadies but not many of them are keen on trying to be part of it." Ram says the roadies don't fake emotions.

They don't pretend to be in love, they actually lose their hearts. When a bunch of twenty-somethings are caught up in an intense situation, there is going to be some chemistry.

Ram says he looks for expressive people, but not actors. "They are not actors."But as we have seen for the last four years, after a Roadies show, the participants end up with careers that require a talent for histrionics.

For the latest on this reality show, sms "ROADIES" to 56882 or log on to mtvindia.com.

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