Hosts of Roadies Season 11 Rannvijay Singha and Raghu Ram spoke to Iknoor Kaur about the new twist in the show
Bikes are serviced, camps are set, the map is pinned and the Rann is lit. Starting their journey amidst the desserts of Gujarat, yet another season of MTV Roadies is here. Wrapped in action, the 10-year-old series is known for its drama and politics leading to vote-outs. However, in this season, there is a question — will there be drama and politicsIJ Roadies X 1 is not about being mean, intelligent, cunning or clever — it is about being fit and challenging. This latest edition will have no vote-out, no politics, but only a ‘ride for respect’. Hosts Raghu Ram and Rannvijay Singha recently launched the 11th season of the popular reality show ahead of the Delhi auditions.
Whether or not the elimination of vote-outs will affect the politics of the show, the hosts believe it is the best change they could have brought to the show. “For the past 10 years people have watched the show for human drama and people on the show have used vote-outs as an excuse to create that drama. So we thought that if there are no vote-outs, there is no drama. But then again, a question rises that in spite of that is there dramaIJ Our point is to create the worst possible world and then see if you can be good. We believe that people don’t play politics for individual survival. It is human nature,” shared Raghu.
Rannvijay on the other hand feels that there are only two things that can happen in a situation like that, “either they all become good friends and let the best person win, or they start isolating people. The only thing is, this time they all have to take responsibility for what they do, not blame it on the show,” he said.
The show is also not going international this season. “We are doing Roadies in India this time. I think India has so many unexplored regions that we don’t need to go abroad. We are starting from Rann of Kutch because it has some extreme weather conditions and dealing with such conditions while doing difficult tasks is challenging,” explained Rannvijay.
The procedure for picking up the contestants is going to be the same, said Raghu. “We always look for people who are interesting. First when we thought of this season’s theme which was performance-based, we thought that we should take only fit people. But this is not the Commonwealth Games. We want people who haven’t done something before and have the will, determination and power to do it now. That is why it is a ‘ride for respect’. I want people to push themselves,” he explained.
Raghu is known on screen for his abusive language and strict behaviour. However, this time he made a promise. He said, “I think I have always met people the way they meet me and I have been consistent with my behavioural pattern too. However, the difference this time is that I am going to try my best to not abuse. This is not because I’m apologetic of it or I feel bad about it, but because people have started focussing so much on my language that they miss out on the point I am trying to make.”
Rannvijay who has been there and done that in the first season said that the tasks this time will be tough, scary and challenging. “They will be more exciting and the contestants will always be exhausted. We will see how the contestants perform under pressure,” he elaborated.
Along with this show Rannvijay is also busy with his ongoing show Rann VJ Run. Meanwhile, Raghu, who was not sure till sometime back whether he would or not be a part of Roadies this season, decided to apply his mind in another field. He wrote down an entire book on his 10-year journey with the show called Rearview–My Roadies Journey. The book was also launched at the event.
The gates for the auditions of Roadies X 1 opened on November 17 in Delhi and will now go to Chandigarh, Pune and Ahmedabad.