THE PERSON BEHIND ROADIES

Raghu Ram is the senior supervising producer at MTV India and the executive producer of the show MTV Roadies. He co-judges the auditions for the MTV Roadies with MTV VJ Rajiv Laxman. He is known for his crude remarks and sharp observation tactics. He is also well known to be ruthless and impatient with the contestants when he takes the auditions. He was given the nickname of jerky idiot for his unique behaviour. "Roadies has travel, adventure, drama, touch of voyeurism..." said Raghu Ram, when asked about the show.[1] However, during the show "Behind the scenes", we get to see a different rather softer side of him. In Roadies 6.0, on the first episode actual "Hell Down Under" (after auditions), Raghu has announced it's "Retirement time" for him.

In an interview to the Hindustan Times, Ram stated that he was born in Machilipatnam present in Andhra Pradesh, brought up in Delhi. He studied at Woodstock School, Mussoorie, completing his graduation, and started in MTV roadies, UK.[2][3] Raghu's idea of MTV Roadies was accepted as an experimental project by MTV, India.

As of March 2008, Ram continues to act as the senior supervising producer and co-creative head at MTV India. Ram started work at MTV India supervising shows like MTV Love Line with VJ's Malaika Arora Khan and Cyrus Broacha and also lead MTV Select and the first few seasons of MTV Super Select with VJ Nikhil Chinapa. He has also lent his hand to various shows at MTV, sometimes being uncredited.

Raghu Ram was given his first solo project at MTV, in the year 2000. The show was tentatively titled MTV: Find The Road. The show, originally, was to revolve around contestants traveling around the country on their motorcycles, using clues and hints provided on the show. The concept of clues, however, was eventually replaced with tasks and challenges. The shows format initially faced severe criticism from the MTV heads due to its vulgar content, audience value and also it's name, but was later given the green light as an "experimental show that could go off-air anytime". The name of the show was later changed to MTV Roadies. It has remained the highest rated MTV show for 3 consecutive years.

Past winners include Rannvijay, who was one of the winners of first season of Roadies, and he currently works as a VJ at MTV. The second winner was Ayushman, who currently hosts a show called Wassup MTV, along with Bani J, who was a runner up of the fourth season. The third season winner was Parul, and Anthony won the fourth season. The fifth season was won by Ashutosh Kaushik.

Raghu Ram currently resides in Mumbai, and owns a house in Andheri. He also holds 1% of the total MTV India shares in the form of music and television copyrights, like many of the other producers working on the show for the channel. He is currently a full time part of the MTV senior crew. Rumored to be a clubbing addict, he is often spotted at various clubs and parties all around the city. After making guest appearances in MTV Roadies 5.0, Raghu made an appearance in MTV's reality show MTV Splitsvilla on June 28, 2008. He is a staunch critic of Hinduism and has declared that he will do everything to remove Hinduism from India.

Raghu Ram is divorced once and had earlier been in live-in relationship with one of his secretaries Nisha. He recently got married to Sugandha Garg (who played "Shaleen" in the movie "Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na"). He has been criticized by many women rights groups for divorcing his first wife on grounds of her religiosity. According to reports, Raghu Ram was unhappy with the Hindu way of life of his first wife and hence he divorced her and chose Nisha, a Catholic. Finally, he agreed to marry Sugandha.