The Roadies

MTV Roadies is an adventure reality television show along with drama and a touch of voyeurism aired on MTV India and is a huge hit today among the youth of the country. It is currently in its Eight season. Conceptualised by Raghu Ram and Nikhil Chinapa, and hosted by Rannvijay Singh, the show tests the endurance levels of the contestants.

Raghu Ram and Rannvijay Singh shot to instant fame with this show. Nikhil Chinapa was already a visible face earlier. First during the audition itself the Judges with their slam dank hard questions try to sort out the genuine people from the fakes who can give their best in any kind of situation.

The contestants aka Roadies, are given bikes to travel on pre-decided routes along with the crew and different situations are added to make the show interesting. Each episode features a vote-out at the end in which the Roadies eliminate one or more of their fellow Roadies, thereby decreasing the number of roadies carrying on with the journey till the last man standing.

The show first went international during the fifth edition of the Roadies, which covered three countries viz. India, Thailand and Malaysia.

Roadies are given tasks at every destination. They are either Money Advantage or Immunity tasks. Roadies earn a particular amount of money on completion of a Money task. The maximum prize for winning the show is Rs 500,000.The instant fame of the winners doesn’t get un-notices as they either become VJ’s or step into Bollywood.

In the Money tasks, the Roadies collectively perform the challenges and add cash to the winner's account. In Immunity tasks, the winning Team/Roadie gets Immunity, which means that they survive that vote-out. In the Advantage Tasks, which has been introduced from the Season 5.0, the winners get some advantage in that vote out. The exact advantage is decided by the production, and revealed at the vote-out with the purpose to spice things up and possibly spoil any plans and group votes.

The above mentioned tasks are either team-based (i.e. performed between two or more teams) or individually. At the end of scheduled journey, the last Roadie who survives till the end is the winner and walks away with the total cash accumulated by the performance of all the Roadies. Being such a tough competition, the top three Roadies are taken on an equal footing. As a matter of fact, they are immortalized in "Morgue" in the "Roadies Rehab Centre" quite adoringly.

Here is a list of the past MTV Roadies Winners and some interesting facts:

• Season # 1 There was no official winner this season as no one could complete their task.  
• Season # 2 Ayushman Khuranna, Chandigarh
• Season # 3 Parul Shahi, Delhi
• Season # 4 Anthony Yeh, Kolkata
• Season # 5 Ashutosh Kaushik, Saharanpur.
• Season # 6 MTV Roadies Hell Down Under: Nauman Sait, Bangalore. This is the first time in MTV Roadies history that Nikhil Chinnappa was replaced by Raghu's identical twin brother, Rajiv Laxman.
• Season # 7 Anwar Syed, Delhi
• Season # 8 Aanchal Khurana.

Here you can download the MTV Roadies 8 theme song Yahan

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Doordarshan Times

It’s nostalgic going down memory lane to the Era of Doordarshan, our national channel and remembering those DD Shows with which we all have grown up. We are perhaps the only generation to have grown up with the amazing work of creativity on Indian television. There is so much to cherish in our memories.

We all feel like going back in time to the days when we had only one TV channel in India - Doordarshan which was a big part of our childhood days. Those 'Malgudi Days', 'Hum Log', 'Jungle Book', 'Byomkesh Bakshi', 'Flop Show with Jaspal Bhatti', the epics of 'Ramayan' and 'Mahabharat'. and so much more. The generation after us can only remember the more melodramatic ‘Kyunki Saans Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi’ types.

Today we have an overdose of the ‘K’ serials, which are having an influence our lives and relationship and just dragging for years and years taking numerous twists and turns from the original concept, and leaving you confused and irritated. All it is capable of is spreading tears, manipulation, wickedness, and tons of make up. Most TV programmes today are not dramas but ‘bad-parodies’. They often display a high level of tension, frustration, and conflict. Somehow most of the settings are in middle to upper middle, or high, class families that often live in plush homes in virtually interchangeable suburbs.

On the other hand, it seems that the Indian Television is getting over obsessed with the 'Reality' show concept. Almost every T.V channel has some talent hunt show going on be it singing, acting, dancing, fashion -practically everything one can do under the sun. In short, it’s a monumental cultural wasteland on TV- a travesty of game shows and endless commercials - of screaming presenters, tacky shows, cajoling and often offensive.

Somehow the ‘idiot’ box has gone for a complete overhaul than that existed before the arrival of ‘cable’ network. Television in India was not so common then, and yet, people found a set somewhere to watch. If a neighbour had a TV, you would go there to watch, or go over to a relative's place. In smaller towns or villages, a single set would have a large number of people watching the single set. Doordarshan was surprisingly not so detached from its viewer’s needs and sentiments in those days.

As to the weekly serials, musical programmes like 'Rangoli' on Sunday mornings and 'Chitrahaar' were eternal favorites of everyone. None can beat the fame of Ramanand Sagar's 'Ramayan' or B.R.Chopra's 'Mahabharat'. The effect was apparent. Roads would be empty when the serial came, and woes betide an electricity board office if the light would go off; people would gather and raise slogans and threaten. At one time, it set a record for the world's most watched mythological serial. In addition, it opened the floodgates for more mythological and historical serials after that. These serials were a treat to watch at a time when special effects were just beginning to take giant strides in Hollywood movies.

For cultural program enthusiasts there was ‘Spirit of Unity Concert’ and the popular 'Surabhi' hosted by Siddarth Kak and Renuka. The question asked at the end of Surabhi used to invoke response from people all over India sending their answers through postcards. May be it was the first Indian programme that started the concept of contests and postal department had to start competition post cards.

At a time when people had not heard of Discovery Channel and when National Geographic Channel books were read by a few, that wonderful German channel TRANSTEL used to telecast wonderful programs on wildlife. Then there were those National Integration and informative strips - 'Mile Sur Mera Tumhaara' and 'Ek Chidiya'.

But what ailed DD were the usual problems faced by a Government entity- Bureaucracy, red-tape and a general lack of accountability in the Department. Today it just exists, viewed regularly only in the remotest of places, and, in the coming years, even that elite viewer-ship seems improbable.

Doordarshan was truly a balanced diet. Balanced diet for our brain, our mind! No matter how long one watches the same channel, everyone used to get something, not only entertainment but also some knowledge, not only about our history but also about mythology, science, music, our culture and life and people of other places.

In short, the serials of those days had good story line, catchy and well meant dialogues, stellar performances from every actor, fewer commercials and more important a reasonable duration. At its helm, it truly gave us some memorable moments.

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