Raghu Ram, former judge of popular reality TV show Roadies, has opened up about his experiences on the show, revealing the motivations behind his tough outer personality and the reasons for quitting the show. Raghu’s stay on Roadies was characterised by his sharp and often confrontational interactions with contestants. However, he says his approach was not about being cruel but about bringing out the real personalities of the contestants.
“I will meet you the way you meet me. If you meet us with love, if someone is bullied, we will treat him with love,” he told PTI. “There was a contestant Raju Babu Chowdhary, he had a vada pav stall. This is from Roadies 9, it was very beautiful. He told me, ‘Sir please smile for once. I am from a poor family, if you scold me I will get scared,’ so we hugged him.” Raghu also admitted that there were times when he deliberately made the selection process intense, especially if he liked a particular contestant. “If someone got a knuckleduster, it’s his problem, not mine… Having said that, there were times when if I liked someone, I would make it very intense because every person watching is also a judge, it’s their prerogative whether this person should be selected or not… If I liked someone, Rajeev (Laxman) knew it, Rannvijay (Sinha) knew it, it was like let’s go.
We had codes, we used to write it, ‘I like this, take this’… That’s our need, to cast a person we have to see how they react, bring out their reactions. Either they will cry or fight or do something that will make the audience feel that they want to see that person.”
Raghu’s exit from Roadies was a result of the increasing interference of the show’s producers, who wanted him to shout at the contestants and create more drama. “At that time I behaved in a way that could have bothered people. But I was doing a job, is it right, is it wrong, I don’t know.
It’s the same thing, impressing Poonam Pandey, I don’t know… If you hate me for what I did then you are guilty. I will not apologise to you for this.”
“As you grow up, you feel the pressure of catering. I felt it, so I quit Roadies. Rajeev and I left because there was too much interference. We were told to shout at people. Either that or you have to dance to their tune. It’s a good problem to have, because you are successful but now you are not you. You are them,” he said.
Reflecting on the current state of Roadies, Raghu believes that the show has become focused on creating a certain image rather than showing the real personalities of the contestants. To this, he said, “If you look at Roadies now, this is what they wanted to create. This is not what I wanted to create.”
Raghu’s own journey on Roadies was very personal, and he admits that his on-screen persona was an expression of his own anger and frustration towards society. “I was going through a bad phase where that guy (Raghu on Roadies) was the extreme expression of my anger and my relationship with society, God and this concept that I felt society had lied to me about.
So he came across and it connected because I was honest… It didn’t come across because I thought it would work. There wasn’t a case study that told me it would work. Maybe you’re not connecting with it (now) because it’s not honest.” Raghu also expressed his disappointment at the current state of the show, which he believes has lost its authenticity.
“I don’t want to call the Roadies dishonest, I think they’re doing a great job and they’re doing what they want to do, that’s fine. I just want them to find their own personality because I think that’s much more interesting than trying to do things that you think work.”
