''MTV Roadies'' is an Indian

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

series. It premiered on 15 August 2003 on

MTV India MTV is an Indian pay television channel specialising in music, reality and youth culture programming. It was launched in 1996 as the Indian version of the original American network and is owned by JioStar, under a license agreement with Par ...

and is also digitally available on

JioHotstar Disney+ Hotstar, also known as JioHotstar or simply Hotstar, is an Indian subscription video-on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Disney Star. The brand was introduced as Hotstar for a streaming service carrying content from Di ...

. Following the auditions, a group of contestants travel to different destinations and participate in various tasks that challenge their physical, social and mental strength.

Overview

History

The Roadies format was created by Nikhil J. Alva, founder of Miditech Studios, which produced the first two seasons of the show. Initially, Alva conceptualized Roadies as a platform to unite Indian youth through social work and acts of kindness while traveling across India. As the show's popularity grew, MTV took over the production from Miditech after the second season. Former Miditech employees Raghu Ram and Rajiv Ram were brought in to present the show. Under their guidance, Roadies shifted from its original social-oriented concept to a more intense and confrontational format. They continued with the show until the eleventh season, after which they exited. In an interview, Raghu and Rajiv stated that they had done enough to popularize the show and wanted to give the new generation a chance to take it forward. Roadies is one of India's longest-running reality shows.

Format

The first two seasons had a daily budget cap for contestants, encouraging them to experience India's diversity while completing various tasks. However, after MTV took over in the third season, the show adopted a more competitive and aggressive format. From the fourth season, a new segment was introduced to select wild card contestants, Battleground (2006-2009, 2014–present) and Graveyard (2010-2011, 2013-2014). In the fifth season, advantage tasks were introduced, allowing winners to gain benefits during vote-outs (e.g., multiple votes or sole voting power). It was also the first season where Roadies traveled international during journeys. The tenth season featured a mentor-based competition, where a team of ex-contestants led by Raghu Ram competed against a team of new contestants mentored by Rannvijay Singha. In the twelfth season, the format was revamped with the introduction of gang leaders. The eighteenth season introduced a "buddy pairs" format, where ex-roadies and new contestants competed. It also marked the return of bikes, which had been a key feature in earlier seasons. Additionally, this was the first season without Rannvijay Singha. Each season follows a theme and includes various twists, vote-outs, and eliminations. The contestant who survives all challenges and vote-outs is ultimately crowned the Ultimate Roadie in the finale.

Series synopses

;Notes # Prince Narula replaced Sushil Kumar for journey due to Kumar leaving the show for his wrestling training. #

Nikhil Chinapa Nikhil Chinapa (born 6 June 1973) is an Indian DJ, host and festival curator, often credited with popularizing EDM among the youth in India. He has been associated with MTV India since the late 1990s and has appeared in multiple television sho ...

replaced Karan Kundra for journey after Kundra left the show due to work commitments. # Gurmeet Singh Rehal returns as guest gang leader for Gang Nikhil as he wasn't available for a day during journey. #

Harbhajan Singh Harbhajan Singh (born 3 July 1980), also known by his nickname Bhajji, is a former Indian cricketer. He later became a politics, politician, serving as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha. He is also a fil ...

was introduced as a judge present during auditions and occasionally during journey who holds powers. # 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. # 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 Ayushmann Khurrana (born Nishant Khurrana; 14 September 1984) is an Indian actor and singer who works in Hindi films. Known for his portrayals of ordinary men often battling social norms, he is the recipient of several awards, including a Na ...

emerging as the winner. *

(Winner) * Candy Brar (Runner-up) * Varun Agarwal (3rd place) *

Shalin Bhanot Shalin Bhanot (born 15 November 1983) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi television. He started his career as a contestant in ''Roadies 2'' and has since acted in various serials and web shows. He participated in dance reality '' Nach Baliy ...

(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 4

''MTV Roadies 4'' is the fourth season of reality game show ''MTV Roadies'' that aired on

from 2006 to 2007. Hosted by MTV VJ Rannvijay, the show features 13 contestants who ride Hero Honda Karizma bikes on a journey where they endure "sun, snow, rain and physical and mental stress, while complex challenges are thrown at them from every direction." In keeping with the reality contest format, contestants at each episode can be eliminated from the game with a vote out. At the final destination,

Gangtok Gangtok (, ) is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Sikkim. The seat of East Sikkim district, eponymous district, Gangtok is in the eastern Himalayas, Himalayan range, at an elevation of . The city's population of 100 ...

, the winner is awarded a cash prize of up to 500,000

Indian rupees The Indian rupee (Currency symbol, symbol: Indian rupee sign, ₹; ISO 4217, code: INR) is the official currency of India. The rupee is subdivided into 100 ''Indian paisa, paise'' (Hindi plural; singular: ''paisa''). The issuance of the currenc ...

( 5,00,000). Bollywood actor

Gulshan Grover Gulshan Grover (born 21 September 1955) is an Indian actor and film producer who has appeared in over 100 films. He is popularly known as the "Bad Man" of Hindi cinema because of his ability to create an impact with his negative roles in films. ...

makes appearances in the season to introduce twists into the game. The show's winner was Anthony Yeh. ''Roadies'' auditions were held in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

and, for the first time,

Lucknow Lucknow () is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and the largest city of the List of state and union territory capitals in India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is the administrative headquarters of the epon ...

. A total of 13 Roadies, seven men and six women, were chosen. They are: # Poonam Thacker # Anthony Yeh # Raj Roy # Rishabh Dhir # Swati Ahuja # Shaleen Malhotra # Sonam Gupta # Roopali Anand # Ankit Mohan # Gurbani "Bani" Judge #

Vishal Karwal Vishal Karwal is an Indian television-film actor. He has played some famous serials like ''Dwarkadheesh Bhagwaan Shree Krishn'', ''Rishton Se Badi Pratha'', ''Ek Hazaaron Mein Meri Behna Hai'' and ''Rangrasiya''. He participated in ''MTV Roadi ...

# Sahil Anand # Amandeep "Oorja" Narang

Season 5

''MTV Roadies 5.0'' is the fifth season of ''MTV Roadies'', a

show aired on

. The show was created by Raghu Ram and is hosted by Rannvijay. "''Roadies'' has travel, adventure, drama, touch of voyeurism..." said Raghu Ram, when asked about the show. The maximum prize for winning the show was .

Contestants

* 1. Varun * 2. Prabhjot * 3. Vibhor * 4. Ayaz * 5. Ankita (simran) * 6. Nishant Singh (Runner up)

Season 6

''MTV Roadies: Hell Down Under'' is the sixth season of ''MTV Roadies'', a

show aired on

. The season 6 of roadies was also known as "Hell Down Under" because the second half of season took place in Australia and the tasks were reminiscent of Hell. The audition episodes were aired from 29 November 2008 and the journey episodes began airing on 10 January 2009. The actual journey of the selected Roadies started from 11 November 2008. Its auditions were held in various cities of India, like

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and

. Following mob violence during

auditions, roadies from Delhi and

were shortlisted through online auditions, followed by a Group Discussion and Interview. This is the first time in ''MTV Roadies'' history that

was replaced by Raghu's identical twin brother, Rajiv Laxman. Roop Bhinder and Palak Johal returned as All-Stars for Roadies X - Battle for Glory. While Bhinder finished in 11th place Johal won the season.

Season 7

MTV Roadies 7 (advertised as ''ROADIES'') is the seventh season of MTV Roadies, a popular weekly reality television show on

. The season first aired on 8 November 2009 and is airing its annual "auditions" portion in which the contestants of the show are selected. Part of the season took place in Africa

List of Roadies

# Ameya R. Kadam: Ameya is 20-year-old student of Commercial Arts. # Amritpal Singh: Amritpal is a 24-year-old guy from Mumbai. He is the adventure loving Roadie in MTV Roadies 7. # Anwar Syed: The winner of Roadies 7, Anwar is a 24-year-old guy. He is the sports loving Roadie in Roadies 7. # Bharti Nagpal: Bharti Nagpal is a 23-year-old girl from Delhi. She is the travel loving Roadie in MTV Roadies 7. # Charlie Chauhan: Charlie is a 20-year-old female from Shimla. She is fun loving Roadies in Roadies 7. # Eric Roy: Eric is a 20-year-old guy from Kolkata. He is the smart Roadies in MTV Roadies 7. # Gaurav Gill: Gaurav is a 21-year-old guy from Mumbai. He is music loving Roadies in Roadies 7. # Mannat Mundi: Mannat is an 18-year-old girl from Chandigarh. She was challenging rider in MTV Roadies 7. # Meghna Mirgnani: Meghna is a 24-year-old girl from Mumbai. She is nature loving Roadies in Roadies 7. # Mohit Malik: Mohit is a 19-year-old intelligent guy. He is also a good Roadies in MTV Roadies 7. # Nisha Rana: Nisha Rana is a 25-year-old girl from Chandigarh. She is also challenging Roadies in Roadies 7. # Priyanka Roy: Priyanka is a 22-year-old female from Kolkata. She is painting loving Roadies in MTV Roadies 7. # Ravneet Kaur: Ravneet is an 18-year-old simple girl. She is basketball loving Roadies in Roadies 7. # Vikas Ambwani: Vikas is a 24-year-old guy from Kota. He is the hardworking Roadies in MTV Roadies 7. # Vikram Jeet Singh: Vikram is a 23-year-old guy from Delhi. He is fun loving rider in Roadies 7. # Yatin Madhok: Yatin is a 19-year-old guy from Delhi. He is friendly rider in MTV Roadies 7. # Zaid Bin Nazir: Zaid is a 24-year-old guy from Bangalore. He is also fun loving guy who is the Roadies in Roadies 7. # Priyanka Telang: Priyanka is a 24-year-old girl. # Rahul Suri: Rahul is a 25-year-old guy from Delhi. # Ranjna Rawat: Ranjna Rawat is a 21-year-old girl from Chandigarh. # Rishabh Gulati: Rishabh is a 20-year-old guy from Delhi. # Sahibjit Singh: Sahibjit is a 21-year-old guy from Delhi. # Shweta Bisen: Shweta is a 24-year-old girl from Nagpur.

Season 8

''MTV Roadies Shortcut To Hell'' is the eighth season of ''MTV Roadies'', a

show aired on

. The season 8 of roadies was also known as "Shortcut To Hell" as the second half of the season took place in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. The audition episodes were aired from 22 January 2011 and the journey episodes began airing on 5 March 2011. Its auditions were held in various cities of India, like

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. The audition is done by Raghu Ram, Rajiv Laxman and Rannvijay Singh. The title was won by Aanchal Khurana from Delhi. Avtar Nischal, Suchit Vikram Singh, and Mohit Saggar returned as All-Stars for Roadies X - Battle for Glory. Nischal withdrew in mid-season, Singh finished in 10th place and Saggar eventually placed as 2nd Runner-up.

Contestants

There were thirteen contestants overall.

Season 9

''MTV Roadies 9 : Everything or Nothing'' is the ninth season of MTV Roadies, a reality television show aired on

. The auditions started on 16 September from Pune following with Audition in Kolkata, Delhi, Chandhigarh and Hyderabad. Part of the season will take place in United States of America. The show started airing on

from 7 January 2012 and every new episode aired on Saturdays at 7 p.m. IST. The series was won by Vikas Khoker from Chandigarh. He won the title on 30 June 2012 and walked away with a total cash prize of ₹ . Anirudh Sharma and Diyali Chauhan returned as All-Stars for Roadies X – Battle for Glory. Chauhan finished in 15th place and Sharma placed as 3rd Runner-up.

Contestants

There were thirteen contestants overall. :''The Total Votes is the number of votes a roadie has received during Vote-outs where the roadie is eligible to be eliminated from the game.''

Season 10

''MTV Roadies X : Battle for Glory'' is the tenth season of MTV Roadies, a reality television show aired on

. The auditions started on 31 October 2012 and were held in Pune, Delhi, Chandigarh and Hyderabad. The show started airing on

from 19 January 2013 with new episodes airing every Saturday at 7:00 pm IST. The series was won by veteran roadie Palak Johal, originally from Season 6, of Team Raghu. She won the title on 11 May 2013. Her grand price included a total cash price of ₹ 450,000, a Hero Impulse bike and an HP laptop.

Contestants

There were sixteen contestants overall. :''The Total Votes is the number of votes a roadie has received during Vote-outs where the roadie is eligible to be eliminated from the game.''

Season 11

''MTV Roadies X1 : Ride for Respect'' is the eleventh season of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

reality show Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

MTV Roadies. The show was hosted by Rannvijay Singh, who was also one of the judges, along with Raghu Ram, during personal interview rounds. It started airing on

from 25 January 2014. The series was won by Nikhil Sachdeva (also popularly known as Nick). He won the title on 18 May 2014. His grand price included a Hero Impulse bike and a total cash price of 320,000.

Contestants

There are fourteen contestants selected from 4 cities.

Season 12

''MTV Roadies X2'' is the 12th season of

MTV Roadies.

Contestants

There are twenty two contestants selected from 4 cities.

Season 13

MTV Roadies X4: Your Gang, Your Glory is the thirteenth season of

''MTV Roadies''. The show is hosted by

Gaelyn Mendonca Gaelyn Mendonca is an Indian actress,model and VJ for MTV India. She is best known for hosting WWE Now India and MTV Hustle. Early life and education Gaelyn Mendonca was born in Bombay, and grew up in Orlem. She graduated from Carmel ...

. It started airing on

from 20 February 2016. The audition episodes were aired from 20 February 2016 and the journey episodes began airing on 6 April 2016. Its auditions were held in various cities of India, like

and

. The auditions were taken by the four aspiring gang leaders – Rannvijay Singha, Karan Kundrra,

Neha Dhupia Neha Dhupia (born 27 August 1980) is an Indian actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder. She won the title of Femina Miss India in 2002 and represented India at Miss Universe 2002. She is primarily known for her work in Hindi films and t ...

and Sushil Kumar. After a prestigious finale, Balraj was crowned as the winner.

Contestants

There were originally 20 contestants at the beginning of the journey. Battleground winner contestant Benafsha Soonawalla entered in episode 6, and Shivangi Walia replaced Kavya Khurana in episode 9, bringing the total contestant number to 22.

Season 14

''MTV Roadies Rising'' is the fourteenth season of

MTV Roadies. The show is hosted by

. It started airing on

from 25 February 2017. The auditions were taken by the four aspiring gang leaders - Rannvijay Singha, Karan Kundrra,

and Prince Narula. Cricketer

is to play a crucial part. Later

replaced Karan Kundrra as gang leader on the journey. Journey started on 8 April 2017 and Roadies Battleground was on 7 April 2017.

Season 15

''MTV Roadies Xtreme'' is the fifteenth season of

MTV Roadies. The show is hosted by Rannvijay Singha. It started airing on

from 18 February 2018. The auditions were taken by Rannvijay Singha and the four aspiring gang leaders - Raftaar,

and Prince Narula and from this season, Rannvijay serves as a mentor and host.

Season 16

'' MTV Roadies: Real Heroes'' was the sixteenth season of the Indian reality show MTV Roadies, which premiered on

from 10 February 2019. The audition were taken by Rannvijay Singha & the four returning gang leaders - Prince Narula,

and Raftaar along with new gang leader

Sandeep Singh Sandeep Singh (born 27 February 1986) is an Indian professional field hockey player from Haryana and an ex-captain of the Indian national hockey team. He generally features as a full back and is a penalty corner specialist for the team. He ...

. Rannvijay continued to serve as a mentor and host, while Divya Agarwal and Varun Sood played the role of Roadies Insiders. Baseer Ali hosted the

Voot Voot was an Indian subscription video-on-demand and over-the-top streaming service owned by Viacom18, a joint venture between Reliance Industries, Network18. The service was initially launched on 4 May 2016. It initially launched as an adver ...

segments with Shruti Sinha. ; Notes: * - The total votes were countered which resulted in a tie(1–1–1), but due to Rashmeet having received 10 votes as the majority, she was voted out. * - Both Aarushi and Rachel were voted out in the fight to vote task with only the Roadie who escaped the cage would vote. * - Gang Neha was Knocked out by gang Sandeep. * - Gaurav was released as heinjured his arm in a challenge prior. *

Season 17

''MTV Roadies: Revolution'' is the seventeenth season of MTV Roadies, which premiered on

from 15 February 2020. Prince Narula,

and Raftaar ( Varun Sood replaced him mid season) returned as Leaders while Rannvijay Singh continues as the host. In this season, there is no gang leader nor any gang. The contestants are going to fight solo during their journey right from the beginning. In the previous seasons from Roadies X2 contestants are grouped into gangs under a gang leader to perform their tasks and they fight solo towards the end of the show. For the very first time, the show is being streamed on

24hr before TV steaming platform a day before the TV which is made exclusively available only to Voot Select subscribers.

Season 18

''MTV Roadies: Journey in South Africa'' is the eighteenth season of India ''MTV Roadies'' produced by Pippip Media Private Limited. It premiered on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

on 8 April 2022. A spin-off series, Roadies - All Access Star hosted by

and judged by

Arjun Kanungo Arjun Kanungo (born 6 September 1990) is an Indian singer and music composer, recording artist, music producer, and entrepreneur from Mumbai. Kanungo began his career at the age of 17, initially working on building recording studios and deve ...

streamed exclusively on

. On 10 July 2022, Ashish Bhatia and Nandini G emerged as winners of the season, and for first time there were two winners. Jashwanth Bopanna and Yukti Arora were the first runners-up and Kevin Almasifar and Moose Jattana were 2nd runners-up.

Season 19

Season 20

''MTV Roadies: Double Cross'' is the twentieth season of MTV Roadies. It premiered on

on 11 January 2025 and is digitally available on

. The season was won by Kushal "Gullu" Tanwar from Gang Elvish, with Hartaaj Singh Gill from Gang Prince finishing second. Playing card heart A

indicates battleground entry.
Playing_card_club_A

indicates roadie re-entered as wildcard.
Playing_card_diamond_A

indicates roadie re-entered via auction. Color Keys : Gang Elvish : Gang Neha : Gang Prince : Gang Rhea : Gang Gautam

References

External links

Roadies official website
{{Roadies Adventure reality television series 2003 Indian television series debuts Indian reality television series