What happened when Team t2 caught up with Team Roadies X2 — Rannvijay Singha, Esha Deol, Karan Kundra and Vijender Singh — at Soho? A fun chat on Roadies and beyond. 

Priyanka Roy: Rannvijay, you’ve been a part of Roadies for the last 12 years. Have you given any tips to the other judges? 
Rannvijay Singha: I feel old now! (Laughs)
Esha Deol: I was glad to have him around. He was ready to take us under his wing and say: ‘Chalo, judge karte hain show ko saath mein’. 
Rannvijay: Rulayegi kya, pagli?
(Everyone bursts out laughing)
Esha: Someone bring some tissue! 
Karan Kundra: Nahin… towel chahiye!

Priyanka: What do each of the three new judges bring to the table? 
Rannvijay: In 2004, during Roadies 2, we were promoting Dhoom (in which Esha played the bike-riding sexy siren Sheena). I was hosting Roadies for the first time. We knew right then that Esha had the Roadie spirit. Vijender has also been a part of Roadies. Karan is the only one who has never been part of it.
Karan: But I have always been a Roadies fan. 
Rannvijay: If you watch MTV now, you won’t see Cyrus Broacha or Cyrus Sahukar so much, or Nikhil (Chinapa) or me for that matter. Karan is the new face of the youth. It’s exciting for me to see what Karan is going to do on the journey. It is through him and his excited eyes that we will be living this journey vicariously.
Karan: I realised from the Pune and Delhi auditions that some people were waiting the whole night to be a part of the auditions. So, if there are thousands of people wanting to be part of the show, imagine the kind of people who will be watching the show! And there is Rannvijay who people idolise, then there are Esha and Vijender. The youth is looking at us and following us. 
Esha: I have chosen to do something like this after being married for two-and-a-half years now! A lot of people have pre-conceived notions like: ‘Chalo yaar, star hai… aisi hogi!’ I am a real person. In the show, people will see who I am. If I feel emotional, I will cry. If I want to scream, I will scream. If I want to hug someone, I will do so. 

Priyanka: So Esha, while you are with the Roadies gang, do you become one of the boys?
Rannvijay: She doesn’t have to be one of the boys to hang out with the boys. We have to be like her. In today’s day and age, if there are tomboys, there are tomgirls! 
I honestly feel if a girl has to hang out with boys, she doesn’t have to be a tomboy. If I say her jacket is nice, is it me being a girl? No. If she is riding a bike, why is she being a boy? It is we who have to make this difference. A lot of girls who play sports take pride in the fact that they are tomboys. I don’t know why! She is actually a girl who plays sports. 

Ratnalekha Mazumdar: Esha, how did your family react when you said you were judging Roadies?
Esha: My parents (Dharmendra and Hema Malini) have always been supportive. My husband (Bharat Takhtani) has supported me… he’s known me ever since I had braces and a high ponytail! He feels that this is not a show where I will crib, feel bored and call him saying that I am waiting in the van for a shot. I feel there is a pre-conceived notion that if you are married, then ghar mein khana khao aur pati ko khana khilao. There are so many women now who are managing both ... like Madhuri (Dixit) and my mother. I represent the youth in a big way and I am thankful for that. 

Ratnalekha: Vijender, what are your memories of watching the show?
Vijender Singh: In 2010, when I won the Olympic medal (in boxing), I loved watching the show. I loved watching Rannvijay, Raghu (Ram) and Rajiv (Lakshman). So, when I got the call, I thought it would be so much fun. 

Priyanka: Rannvijay, how tough will it be for you on the Roadies journey without Raghu and Rajiv, who have made Roadies what it is today?
Rannvijay: Raghu and Rajiv weren’t there in Roadies 7 too. In fact, Rajiv has been a part of only two seasons (6 and 8). I am in touch with them always. Roadies happens for 40 days in a year, but we are in touch throughout the year. They have their own company, Monozygotic. They started Splitsvilla and it’s their team that creates MasterChef India. Their main job is to create and not come in front of the camera. They made a conscious decision to stay away this season. Raghu has also written a book (Rearview: My Roadies Journey) where he had mentioned that he wanted to leave the show. 

Ratnalekha: Do you think Roadies overdoes the aggression? 
Rannvijay: If you come across a guy who says that he left his girlfriend in the middle of the highway at night and every kid who is watching the show will feel that it is cool… do you think we should let him off? There was a guy who said that. Uski bajaayi humne aur kisi ne agar tab TV on kiya hoga toh sirf dekha ke hum uski bajaa rahe hain… toh logon ko lagega ki hum sirf logon ki bajaate hain. There are also people who have said they wished their kids had the same values like us. 
Karan: Today at the GD (group discussion), there was a discussion about rape victims and same-sex marriages. It is important to see how they see and what they see. I tried for 15 minutes to instil some sense in one of them, but I couldn’t. I had to walk out. 
Rannvijay: The kind of people we come across on Roadies, you won’t meet them in your social circle. 
Karan: There are questions in the (Roadies)  entry form like: Have they had sex? How many times have they been in a relationship? Will they marry a rape victim? People write their best answers and then we start talking to them. 
Rannvijay: We asked a boy once: Do you love a girl? He said ‘yes’. Then when we asked him what if his parents don’t agree to the match, he said he would elope with the girl. When we asked him what he would do if his sister did the same, he said he would kill his sister! Through Roadies, we can show you how the youth of India today is thinking. But that is not the agenda of the show and that’s the beauty of Roadies… it’s an entertainment show. 

Disha Banerjee (t2 reader and 1st year English Honours student at Shri Shikshayatan College): So why does the Indian youth want to become a Roadie? 
Rannvijay: We don’t ask them that anymore because I pretty much know all the five answers. which are: ‘I love adventure’. ‘I love travel’. ‘I love money’. ‘I want to be famous’. 
‘I want to challenge myself!’ (Laughs) I don’t know why they can’t do all of that outside Roadies. They say: ‘I love adventure!’ When we ask: ‘What adventures have you had so far?’ They say: ‘Ab karunga na!’ 
On a more serious note, an ideal Roadie would be somebody who has a plan in his or her life. There is a village girl I know… she doesn’t know English, but she learnt French and now she teaches. She rides a bike from her school to her home in the village every day. Everybody takes pride in her. There is a basketball player who wants to join the army. He reminds me of me. His agenda is not to get noticed and not to get offers from Ekta Kapoor… no offence! (Looks at Karan, who has done a number of Ekta-produced shows, and laughs) 

Priyanka: But don’t most contestants want to be a Roadie just to be another Rannvijay Singha or Ayushmann Khurrana?
Rannvijay: Nahin, yaar… not all. My whole interest in being on Roadies was jeetoge toh bike milegi! Yes, there are some contestants who are on TV and in films, but there are many others who didn’t do all this and went back to their lives.

Disha: What’s the most adventurous thing you guys have done so far? 
Karan: Joining Roadies! I am learning every day. You don’t get to work with a national hero like Vijender every time. I am as good as a contestant. This is going to be one hell of a journey.
Esha: For me, taking the plunge and settling down was the biggest adventure. 
Rannvijay: I have been in the water with alligators and jumped off planes. I was once in a chopper in Austria that was doing somersaults! I want to do cave diving. I want to climb Mount Everest.... 

Ratnalekha: Given a choice to be on the other side, why would you want to be a Roadies contestant?
Rannvijay: To win a bike! The emotion has to be very simple and clear. 
Karan: To have fun!
Vijender: For adventure.
Esha: I want to be faaaaamous!

Which of the four judges will you watch Roadies for?
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