MTV Roadies

MTV Roadies is a youth-based reality show of India. It was launched on 15 August 2003 and airs on MTV India. The show is digitally available on JioCinema.

In this show, a group of contestants travel to different destinations and participate in various tasks that challenge their physical, social and mental strength.

History
The Roadies format was created by Nikhil J Alva, founder of Miditech Studios. Miditech Studios produced the first 2 seasons of the Roadies series. In those early days, the format creator, Nikhil J Alva, had conceptualized the format as one that would unite the youth of India through social work and random acts of kindness as the contestants travelled across India.

Seeing its popularity soar, the series was taken over by MTV from Miditech, to be produced in-house after the second season. Raghu Ram and Rajiv Ram, former Miditech Studio employees, were tasked with producing and anchoring the show for MTV. Under Raghu and Rajiv's guidance, the show took a dramatic turn away from its feel-good-social-flavor, to a more crass, and in-your-face tone. Raghu and Rajiv left the show in 2014. They told the media that they had done enough to popularise the show and wanted to give opportunities to the new generation to carry the show forward. With a 17-year history, it is one of India's longest running reality shows.

During the course of the journey there are vote outs, vote ins, eliminations and game changing twists. Eventually the contestant who manages to survive vote outs and succeed in the finale is chosen as the winner. The show has enjoyed relative success among the youth.

Format
The first two seasons had a cap on the daily budget allocated to the contestants. During the show, apart from learning about India's diversity, they were also given tasks to get to know each other. The tasks became more aggressive with over-the-top-reality sequences, from the third season onwards, when it was taken over from Miditech Studios by MTV.

Since the fourth season, Battleground (2006-2009, 2014–present) later known as Graveyard (2010-2011, 2013-2014) the show introduced the choice wild cards.

In the fifth season, The "Advantage task" was introduced. The winner of the task would get an advantage in the vote out, which could be multiple votes or being the only one(s) to vote. That was the first time the show went international.

In the tenth season, a team of former contestants mentored by Raghu Ram were pitted against a team of fresh contestants mentored by Rannvijay Singha, who was the winner of the first version of the contest.

In the twelfth season, during the auditions, "Gang Leaders" were introduced. Four Gang Leaders had to hit a buzzer to express their interest in a contestant. Contestants in return had the option to choose which gang they would like to be a part of.

In the fourteenth season, bikes, which had been a common aspect of the show, were discontinued and the makers opted for a car. That continued into the fifteenth season as well and so on.

Season nineteen was introduced with a new concept of debut roadies and ex-roadies competing against each other for the title. Bikes, which had been a common aspect of the earlier seasons, were introduced again. That was the first season without the presence of Rannvijay Singha.

Across all seasons, vote outs, vote ins, immunity, eliminations, captaincy, twists introduced by the makers, and special appearances by guests like actors, sportspersons and musicians have been regular features of the show.

Series synopses

 * Notes


 * 1) Prince Narula replaced Sushil Kumar for journey due to Kumar leaving the show for his wrestling training.
 * 2) Nikhil Chinapa replaced Karan Kundra for journey after Kundra left the show due to work commitments.
 * 3) Gurmeet Singh Rehal returns as guest gang leader for Gang Nikhil as he wasn't available for a day during journey.
 * 4) Harbhajan Singh was introduced as a judge present during auditions and occasionally during journey who holds powers.
 * 5) Varun Sood substitute Raftaar as gang leader during journey after he leaves for few days due to work commitments. Later he replaced him due to Raftaar being medically unfit.
 * 6) Roadies: Journey in South Africa was played in the format of buddy pairs. Hence there were two winners and runner-ups.

Season 1
MTV Roadies 1 is the first season of the reality series. It premiered on 15 August 2003 and ended on 8 November 2003 with Rannvijay Singha emerging as the winner.


 * Rannvijay Singha (Winner)
 * Natasha Gulati (Runner-up)
 * Tony Kordolia (3rd place)
 * Ranjit Bajaj (4th place)
 * Ignoor Bains (5th place)
 * Divya Shukla (6th place)
 * Mini Goel (7th place)

Season 2
MTV Roadies 2 is the second season of the reality series. It premiered on 21 August 2004 and ended on 12 March 2005 with Ayushmann Khurrana emerging as the winner.


 * Ayushmann Khurrana (Winner)
 * Candy Brar (Runner-up)
 * Varun Agarwal (3rd place)
 * Shalin Bhanot (4th place)
 * Neha Bhatia (5th place)
 * Aarti Seth (6th place)
 * Vinod Rawat (7th place)

Season 3
MTV Roadies 3 is the third season of the reality series. It premiered on 11 November 2005 and ended on 3 March 2006 with Parul Shahi emerging as the winner.


 * Parul Shahi (Winner)
 * Rahul Sharma (Runner-up)
 * Anuj Sachdeva (3rd place)
 * Shubhi Mehta (4th place)
 * Priyanka Bhau (5th place)
 * Stuti Nagpal (6th place)
 * Abhijeet Ghosh (7th place)
 * Krishnesh Nayak (8th place)
 * Sonia Clark (9th place)
 * Amitinder S Deepak (10th place)
 * Meher Ahmed (11th place)
 * Laveen Bhardwaj (12th place)
 * Shubendru Sood (13th place)

Season 5
The fifth season premiered in 2007 until 2008.

Season 6
The sixth season aired in 2008.

Season 7
The seventh season aired in 2009.

Season 8
The eighth season aired in 2011.

Season 9
The ninth season aired in 2012.

Season 10
The tenth season was aired 2013.

Season 11
The eleventh season of MTV Roadies premiered in 2006, and it was a season that will never be forgotten, with  Nikhil Sachdeva  being crowned as the ultimate winner.

Season 12
The twelfth season aired in 2015. Prince Narula emerged as the winner.

Season 13
The thirteenth season aired in 2016. The format changed after this season as they roped in gang leaders.

Season 14
The fourteenth season aired in 2017.

Season 15
The fifteenth season aired in 2018.

Season 16
The sixteenth season aired in 2019.

Season 17
The seventeenth season aired in 2020. Hamid Barzki emerged as the winner.

Season 18
The eighteenth season aired in 2022. It saw a change in its casting as Sonu Sood joined as the main host. While half of the contestants were new, half of them came from previous seasons. Season 18 had Ex-Roadies and Debutant Roadies competing against each other in Buddy Pairs. Ashish Bhatia. (MTV Roadies: Real Heroes) and Nandini G emerged as winners of the season.

Season 19
The nineteenth season aired in 2023. With Vashu Jain from gang Rhea emerging as the winner and Siwet from gang Prince as the first runner up.