Hell of a Producer

The story of Raghu Ram’s life swings to two extremes. The brain behind (and co-host of) “MTV Roadies: Hell Down Under”, Raghu is one of the most hated and one of the most popular faces on Indian television. He’s the guy who gave the telly a much needed tadka with his acerbic comments and mind-boggling mind-games on “MTV Roadies” since its inception in 2002. And it was just a twist in the tale that transported him (and twin Rajiv Lakshman) into the world of television; the duo would have otherwise been minding a shop someplace!

Changing lanes

Raghu stuns you with the revelation as he narrates the reason behind his unconventional choice of a career. “Rajiv and I were never keen on studies. For myself, no subject succeeded in enticing me to pick up the textbook — save for History. Scraping through school, we went into science in keeping with our parents’ wishes and failed! Next, we went into the Arts and again failed! We were 20 years old, when we dropped out of college and almost agreed to run a shop that dad decided to open for us. We got an opportunity to train at a TV channel and life zoomed into another lane altogether. So you see, I didn’t choose any career; simply because, I had no choice! I took what was offered to me and am happy to have done well!”

Well, his choice was unconventional, especially since he opted to become a behind-scenes-person than a vee-jay. “I could never become a vee-jay! One needs to talk properly and to all kinds of people for that and I’m not that someone! For starters, I was a complete Hindi-speaker till about eight years back; I couldn’t even speak fluent English, one of the prime requisites to become a vee-jay, especially in a channel like MTV,” says Raghu dismissing assertions that, that is exactly what he has become with *Roadies’ now. “I’m not a vee-jay on Roadies.

There is no such job profile on the show. If at all, there’s an anchor and that is Rannvijay who’s doing a great job. I’m happier behind the camera, brainstorming ideas and directing the show. I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of shooting, editing, creating tasks.” In fact, when Roadies begun, I was not on the show; I came on later during season when the auditions started being aired and we desperately wanted a person who’d understand the concept of Roadies out-n-out; would be able to sift through the contestants to create the most interesting mix; and would speak Hindi! Luckily or unluckily, I was the only one who fitted the criteria and thus came in front of the Roadies camera by default!” reveals Raghu who further stuns revealing that he was never in favour of the auditions being aired!

“As the conceptualizer of MTV Roadies, I was dead against the auditions being aired because I was sure that after some time, people would come prepared for the auditions; thus killing the fun and probably, the purpose of the same! I find traces of my fear getting manifested now but so far we’ve been able to adapt the format such that contestants still face the unexpected” he says smiling his rare smiles. All said and done, Raghu has become a ‘personality’; an ‘icon’ and there’s no denying that. “Well I’m in denial; at least I’d like to be. I know I can’t – but, that does not mean I’m happy with it!

Most people would give a leg and arm for the kind of popularity I (and Rajiv) are enjoying today even though it swings to negative extremes in my case. But I’m not amused at seeing my face on hoardings or getting marriage proposals dime a dozen or receiving death threats with alarming regularity. It’s not for the humour or gore associated with the aforementioned; but because my becoming a ‘known face’ is proving to be deterrent in my role as a selector on Roadies.

“The profile requires me to be a keen observer of human behaviour to deduce their characteristics but now, people don’t behave naturally with me as a ‘celebrity’. Add to that, the fact that I get crazily mobbed due to this celeb-hood, makes things very difficult when all I want to do is have a satisfying shoot. Furthermore, the very implication that I’ve ‘created’ a personality is disturbing because I’ve never sought to change my style, language or mannerisms so that I could become popular.

It’s the way I’ve always been; I’ve always lashed out at bigots intending to create dangerous rifts, at people who act supercilious or disrespectful for no reason, at people who treat women as inferiors, or at blindly biased people who refuse to live and let live. Whether I meet one of these sorts on the show or whether on the public level, I react in the same way,” explains Raghu giving a glimpse into the reason behind his recent outburst against Pramod Muthalik during the Mangalore pub incident.

“But, when these traits of mine, which remain constant on and off screen, get bottled into some kind of a formula to be emulated, I don’t find it exciting because it does nothing for the show, which is my prime-most priority; as also, it alludes to the thought that I put on a mask or act on the show, which I don’t!” But Raghu admits that he’s not proud of the extremes of love and hate he elicits. “ “Nobody likes to be hated and I’m no exception. I’m not scared of being one of the most hated guys but it’s not nice to receive SMSes threatening to kill you or have e-games like ‘Slap Raghu’ that makes me think, ‘are there so many people who’ll jump at slapping me, given the opportunity?’

On the other hand, to get bizarre marriage proposals or have them tell you that they attribute their life’s success to your advice on the show is also unnerving because it is a major responsibility. I’d rather people just take what they like from my advice or personality without attributing it to me,” clarifies Raghu adding that’s why he abhors terms like youth icon being stuck on him. “Now that’ll be really scary!” he shudders.

While Raghu is best known as the progenitor of Roadies, not many know that he has also supervised hit shows like “MTV Love Life” and led the first few seasons of “MTV Select”. In the recent past, he’s also been *the brain’ behind shows like “Splitsvilla”, “On the Job” and “It Sucks”! One can’t help observing that Raghu enjoys pitting people against each other. Raghu accepts, “It’s not the complete picture. I enjoy watching people; and popular behaviour is most candidly expressed in face of competition. But, I don’t intend to exploit the weaker person because, having been a skinny guy who got punched in his young days, I would never put anyone through it with an idea of sitting back and watching the fun!”

Double trouble

Coming back to “Roadies”, Raghu says it has become more exciting after Rajiv joined him. “Rajiv’s the wit behind ‘Roadies’; he’s always been there with me behind the camera and it was Rannvijay’s idea to get him to face it too. We thought ek se bhale do! So I made him shave his head and now there are two of us to contend with,” Raghu says gleefully.Well, one thing that never fails to exasperate us hapless viewers is the offbeat choice of contestants. What, exactly, goes on in the combined heads of Raghu and Rajiv? “Well, it’s very easy actually. All we are looking for is someone who’ll be reactive — if he/she is melodramatic, better — one who stands out from the junta; one who will create some kind of spark; and one who can speak Hindi. See, we’re not too difficult…” he trails off!

One can’t let Raghu off without quizzing him about future projects — rumour has it that Bollywood figures. Raghu clarifies, “Film offers are trotting in but they all want to show me as I am in Roadies and I’m certainly not interested. I’m instead happily investing my energies in writing poems/lyrics and, yes, I’m also penning a book,” he signs off.

I’m not scared of being one of the most hated guys around but it’s not a nice thing to receive SMSes threatening to kill you…