'Roadies was over the day Rajiv and I walked out': Raghu Ram

New Delhi,UPDATED: Apr 10, 2024 15:26 IST

Raghu Ram, the former judge of the MTV show 'Roadies', recently shared insights with IndiaToday.in regarding the show's influence on his professional and personal life. In the interview, the producer-actor expressed his belief that the 'show was over' on the day he and his twin brother, Rajiv Lakshman, exited it.

Raghu was the executive producer of MTV's 'Roadies' and worked with it for six seasons. While speaking with IndiaToday.in, he explained the reason why he left the popular youth-based show. He said, "I was done. I was fed up. I walked away at the peak of it for two reasons. One was because MTV wanted to make the show a certain way, which I did not agree with. Till 10 seasons, I had pretty much a free hand. But in the 9th-10th seasons, I found myself coming into conflict with MTV, because they wanted a certain populist kind of angle to it."

Raghu continued, "The second thing that was happening was, personally, my life was going through a lot of upheaval because of 'Roadies' and because of the surrounding craze. My marriage was suffering. Ultimately, I got divorced. My mental health, my physical health and everything else was just crazy. I needed to take a step away. So I stopped, and I'm glad I did. Not one day have I regretted walking away."

When asked whether he would return to 'Roadies', Raghu remarked, "No, not going to happen. We were asked, but no, I don't want to. I haven't seen 'Roadies' ever since I left. It is not 'that' 'Roadies' now. It is a completely different show with the name 'Roadies' on it. The format can be compared more to the voice than to the previous 'Roadies'. When Rajiv and I walked away that day, that show was over. That particular format was over."

MTV 'Roadies' is now being hosted by Prince Narula, Rhea Chakraborty and Gautam Gulati.