(From left) Rajeev, Rannvijay and Raghu at The Park on Tuesday. Picture by Aranya Sen

Over chicken sandwiches and watermelon juice at The Bridge, Roadies trio Raghu, Rajeev and Rannvijay tell t2 what goes into the making of the cult MTV show...

Why start the auditions every year with Calcutta?

Raghu: You want the truth or the PR spin?

t2: Both.

Raghu: The PR spin is “We love Calcutta and we get the best Roadies from here”. The truth is that whenever we have started off the auditions from Calcutta, something good has happened. I really don’t want to examine the whys and the hows; it’s just that I feel comfortable if we start the auditions from here.

Rannvijay: People are also very passionate in Calcutta and that comes up in the Roadies auditions. Everybody from here has an opinion about everything and they want to express it. Whether it’s food or football, they will talk for hours about it. Also, Season 4 winner Anthony Yeh is from Calcutta.

Raghu: I was a Bengali till a few years ago! All the girlfriends I have had have been Bengalis, for some strange reason. I know a lot of Bangla abuses!

Over the years, small-town India has produced many Roadies finalists. Yet, you never have auditions in the small towns…

Raghu: I wanted to take the auditions further east this year, to Shillong. But things didn’t work out logistically. Maybe next year.

Rannvijay: We pick and choose the cities where we audition for Roadies simply because we don’t want anybody and everybody to walk in. The ‘chalo, kuch nahin kar rahe hain toh Roadies ke audition ke liye chalte hain’ attitude is something that we want to avoid. If someone has taken a bus or walked for hours or cycled to the venue of an audition to a big city, that’s because he really is passionate about being on Roadies. That’s the kind of temperament we want.

Does a one-season break mean that Raghu and Rajeev are coming back with a vengeance?

Raghu: The tagline for this season is Shortcut to Hell. When you watch the show, you will know very clearly why it’s called that. I can’t talk about it right now but the hell aspect of it is going to be unlike anything that has been seen in previous seasons.

Rajeev: To answer your question, yes we are coming back with a vengeance! But honestly, this season we are getting back to the basics. After online auditions last year, we are back to ground auditions this year. Plus, it’s going to be a tougher, edgier, more exciting Roadies this time around. Also, the fact that Rannvijay is going to be part of the judges panel with us this time will add an extra dimension to this season.

Rannvijay, what did you miss the most about Raghu-Rajeev not being there in Season 7?

Rannvijay: The simple fact that they were not there. Professionally, they have been around me from day one. After I won the first season of Roadies and came to Mumbai looking for a break, I stayed for months with Raghu. Even emotionally and personally, I miss them every day that we are not together.

Rajeev: We are joined at the hip.

Raghu: We are triplets!

Rannvijay: Their mom says that if she had triplets, I would be the youngest. Of course, also the sexiest and the best looking among the three!

Raghu: My mom always wanted a girl. With Rannvijay, she has one!

Rannvijay: My mother’s got two of them now (points to Raghu and Rajeev)!

What does one need to be a good Roadie?

Raghu: Define good Roadie — is it someone who catches your attention, someone who survives or someone who does things his own way, no matter what...

t2: Someone who does things his own way?

Raghu: All of us have our positives and negatives. I personally believe that every person in this world is essentially bad with some good qualities. Most of the time, it is the bad you that comes out. If you can conquer that, then that for me is what a good Roadie is. On Roadies, we will make it tough for you to do the right thing. How you work around that and combat it is what makes you a good Roadie.

Rajeev: For me it is someone who has the confidence to turn around and say that “No man, I will not stoop to that level”. A man with confidence, a man with honour.

How many such contestants have you come across?

Raghu: It has to be only Rannvijay. If it was one more person after Rannvijay, then he or she would have been a part of subsequent seasons.

Rajeev: Honestly speaking, Rannvijay being a part of Roadies went a long way in defining the show for us. There was no point of reference for Roadies before that. After looking at him, we knew the kind of direction we wanted to take for Roadies.

Rannvijay: I think we were very lucky to strike gold with the first season itself. I was all set to be an army person. It is these two guys who made me realise that I was a Roadie and that is where my calling is. Also, there have been so many contestants who may not have gone on to win the show, but were very good. Like Vinod Rawat on Roadies 2 who had an artificial leg. There was Mohit (Malik) last year who was physically very tough. Ayushmaan (Khurana, winner of Season 2) was very good. Bani (Judge) in Season 4 was so tough. The kind of stuff she went through, I can’t imagine any girl coming out of that the way she did.

Raghu: To finish the answer, we don’t sit in judgement. We put out the good and the bad of each and leave it to our viewers to decide.

There have been quite a few Roadies clones…

Raghu: Yes, I believe so. I haven’t seen any though. Now everyone wants to abuse, everyone wants to be tough…. All I want to tell these people who copy us is that it is okay if you don’t have imagination, but at least don’t make us look bad.

Rajeev: There have been at least 25 Tarzan films that have been made in Hindi. But they are not Tarzan.

Raghu: They say that imitation is the best form of flattery but I just get irritated. You crack the formula and someone else feeds off it. You call them clones, I call them cheap imitations.

Rajeev: Even Pakistan has a Roadies copy!

Why has there only been one female winner (Parul Shahi in Season 4)?

Raghu: I think women do have it in them to win Roadies, sometimes even more than men. The only thing is that they need to control their emotions. I am not sexist, but that’s the truth. They get caught up in their own petty insecurities and spoil it for themselves.

Rajeev: Anyone who is not in control of his emotions is not in control of his destiny. Least of all on Roadies.

Raghu, now that you have done a fun role in Jhootha Hi Sahi, will it make contestants less intimidated by you on Roadies?

In Jhootha Hi Sahi, I was Omar, a character. On Roadies, I am Raghu the person. If the contestants confuse the two, then they deserve what’s coming!

With all three of you doing films (Rannvijay is in Action Replayy; Raghu and Rajeev will be seen in Tees Maar Khan), what would your priority be — Roadies or a big film?

Rannvijay: For the last six seasons, I have given up at least one film for Roadies. I even said no to Vipul (Shah). And not a single director I have refused has questioned me, because they know what Roadies means to me. Film guys give a shit about television but when it comes to Roadies, you have everyone from Abhishek Bachchan to John Abraham following it.

Raghu: I just don’t want to do Roadies. The only reason I do it is because it gives me so much creative satisfaction. I lost my mind doing the previous seasons and that’s why I quit it for a year. I don’t enjoy it, I do it because I am damn good at it. If I was getting the same kind of creative satisfaction in anything else, I would leave Roadies right away.

(Why do you like/ dislike Roadies? Tell t2@abpmail.com)