What's so special about the Roadies?
Raghu Ram, the brain behind and producer of Roadies, said, "I think that the popularity of the show has increased by almost 2,500 percent from the first season and has built a global appeal". The show believes in making a contestant's life miserable so that only the deserving person makes it to the end.
When asked about the age limit, Raghu said, "They have to be 18 years old to participate in the show. We haven't fixed the upper limit."
Raghu maintains that the show has evolved over the year and tried to introduce a new format every year. "This year, we have gone a step ahead and gone international," he said. In its fifth season, the Roadies journey has gone beyond the Indian shores and been extended to Thailand and Malaysia.
But what makes Roadies so popular? Raghu believes the main draw of the show is the honesty with which it is shown. "Nothing is rigged on Roadies and in fact, now we are even showing behind-the-scenes clippings. So nothing is made up and that is the real punch," he explained.
"We don't give the contestants a TV, they don't have a mobile phone and they aren't even allowed to speak to strangers," he said. More often than not, the show has been criticised for influencing young minds with offensive language and by showing outrageous tasks. "People send me hate mails saying that we are aggravating the use of foul language and spoiling children. But since we don't want to offend the sensibilities of the general public, we add beeps wherever abusive language is used," said Raghu.
Despite the controversy, it's raging on. Ashish Patil, general manager and vice president (Creative and Content), MTV, said, "Nothing like this show exists on TV. It is wary of melodramatic judges and every emotion on the show is real. "Besides, the thrills that the audience gets from the show are incomparable to those in any other Indian show."
The show has kept many youngsters and older bikers glued to the tv. However, the current participants have been given tasks that are more embarrasing than pulsating or tough guy acts. You hear the word “roadies”, and the first thing that your mind conjures up is the image of a “biker” who loves to hit the road, and experiences what the journey offers.
now what is the roadies spirit? To my mind, a true roadie is like any other guy or gal except for the fact that he or she has sound common sense and is smart enough to tackle the challenges that he or she comes across with determination and innovation.
i guess a true roadie is someone who is another ordinary guy or gal who calls upon his or her potential and comes across sure and true in what he or she does. Whether the roadie is able to fulfil the task or not, the commitment the roadie puts to the task, the effort the roadie takes, it should be 100%. If it results in success, it is all the more sweeter. The roadie is not a loner at the same time the roadie needn’t be overly jovial. The roadie may not be brash, yet he is assertive. The roadie need not go out there looking to pick up a fight, yet if need be, he should stand his ground. So it is not purely about physical strength. The roadie need not go bitching or badmouthing all and sundry, yet if required the roadie is bold enough to be frank and forthright in speech and actions. So it is not only about back stabbing either. For him, a mistake is a mistake, done and over with. He doesn’t have hang-ups or regrets and goes on with his life. He for sure learns from his mistakes and gets a better understanding of life. The roadie is someone who is innovative, has original thinking and can come up with solutions when the need arises. To give an example, in the water test, everyone held the hose with the palms facing outwards, ashuthosh was the only guy who adopted a pull up/chin up position. Here he watched, grasped what is required and adopted the best possible mode to get the optimum results. Simply put, a roadie is someone who is ordinary, understanding, with more than a fair share of the uncommon common sense, tough and determined to achieve what he has set out to do. A roadie is a true soul.
to my mind, the tasks set for the roadies, be it the money task or be it the immunity task, should be such that it brings out glimpses of these qualities in them. The image of a roadie that the mind conjures up is that of a tough determined strong survivor. But the ladyboy task given did not require any of these abilities, it merely requires a person to dress up as a “nineja” and look sassy. If the show was anything about a bunch of kids being taken out on an excursion, true i would agree that it is about giving them a chance to let their hair down and have fun. I. If you were to say its about them not being embarrassed etc, hey, they have come to this international stage, they had already crossed that bench mark in the strip sms. Since they already had two image shattering tasks , the ladyboy dancing was once more a repetition of the same theme. So as a task it was neither innovative or challenging. True, it gave us something to laugh at and that was sheer entertaintment for us, but nothing revealing about the qualities of the bunch of people before us.