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| Pix by Jagan Negi |
My twin, Raghu Ram, and I are from a simple south Indian family that was very focused on academics. We were expected to study engineering or medicine. But soon it was clear that we weren’t headed that way. Naturally, in a community where people have their qualifications etched on their nameplates, there was a lot of pressure on our parents. But we never respected a system in which we did not seem to belong.
This wasn’t the end in my long list of woes. I failed in my first year Economics (Honours) at Deshbandhu College in Delhi. I couldn’t fit in so I even tried to slit my wrists. It shocked everyone as I was cheerful and popular and very active in music, dramatics and debating. This incident was a major turning point in my life and taught me a lot about peer pressure.
Both Raghu and I worked as spot boys in a production house in the early ’90s which didn’t pay much. Apprehensive about our future, my father was thinking of setting up a restaurant for us. Then the cable boom happened and trained personnel were in demand in all departments of the electronic media. Another turning point came when we launched an institute to train people along with TV18 and, in the bargain, learnt on the job by trial and error. This shut down a couple of years later.
The years between 2001-2003 were significant too as we started an ad films company, Softfocus. While working for TV, I used to keep long hours and barely slept. This was probably the worst phase of my life. I humiliated myself to be in the good books of a few clients. However, all this helped keep me grounded.
And then Roadies happened and I landed the job of casting for the show’s first four seasons. By the sixth season I was co-anchoring along with Raghu. Now, it’s in its eighth season and life has taken a new turn. This, and a role in the Akshay Kumar-starrer Tees Maar Khan, have been major milestones in my life.
