'I get nasty stares all the time'

The coarser the better. It may seem that this is the mantra followed by Raghu — better known as the crude man who hosts MTV Roadies with his identical twin Rajeev. But he admits that this is far from the case; he behaves the way he does, he explains, because the script demands it.

After all the ups and downs he’s faced in the last few years, Raghu confesses that he wants to quit television altogether and explore other options in the creative field. “I’ve had enough of television. Now, I want to do something else. It’s time to move on,” he says.

Raghu feels MTV Roadies has had a positive impact and is among the best-rated shows across the globe. But he rues that people have pre-conceived notions about the show and tend to judge him before they meet him in person. “It’s bad enough that I get nasty stares all the time from total strangers. People walk up to me and ask me to tell them something really bad. I am a nice guy and can’t be bad at all. The script of MTV Roadies demands that we talk in a certain manner but that doesn’t mean we are rude people all the time,” he points out.

Raghu confesses that he doesn’t want to sound sexist but he believes that Indian society has conditioned boys and men to behave in a certain way. “Indian society tells boys and men what they are supposed to do — there’s a lot of conditioning that goes into their upbringing,” he observes.

Raghu says that he’s experimented with everything in television and he now needs to try his hand at movies. “I really like watching films woven around superhero themes and hope to work on one someday. I also like movies that are realistic,” he adds.

Raghu says that he and Rajeev have done a lot of things together. “He’s not only my brother but my best critic,” says Raghu. When it comes to his wife, Sugandha Garg, he says, “My wife is my best friend. She appreciates my work and is also quick to point out the things she doesn’t like about my show.”

Raghu recalls that he regularly visited Bangalore in the 1980s. “It was called an air-conditioned city back then. I remember my brother and I were returning from a late-night movie and a cop stopped us. We didn’t understand the language and someone passing by was good enough to tell the cop that we weren’t from Bangalore. The cop simply smiled and let us go. That was old Bangalore and it has changed a lot since then,” he signs off.