Raghu Ram

Early and personal life

Ram was born in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. He was born an identical-twin and grew up in Delhi, India, along with his twin brother, Rajiv Laxman. Their father is a chartered accountant and mother a political affairs journalist. They have a younger sister Supriya Nistala, who is married and has a daughter.

The twin brothers studied at the Woodstock School, Landour, Uttarakhand. They later attended the University of Delhi in Delhi. In the first year, both were students of Deshbandhu College, but in the second year, they joined Sri Venkateswara College. In the final year, they joined Osmania University in Hyderabad where they completed their graduation.

Ram was married to actress Sugandha Garg, who has played roles in Hindi films Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Tere Bin Laden and My Name Is Khan. In 2016, they announced their separation, after being married for almost a decade.

Career

Ram started his career at MTV India supervising shows including MTV Love Line with VJs Malaika Arora Khan and Cyrus Broacha, and also spearheaded MTV Select and the first few seasons of MTV Super Select with VJ Nikhil Chinapa. His idea of MTV Roadies was accepted as an experimental project by MTV in 2000. The show was tentatively titled MTV: Find The Road, and was initially met with skepticism by the senior producers of the channel. The show later started to gain popularity from its second season onwards and went on to become the longest running reality show on Indian television. Ram was later appointed the senior supervising producer of MTV India and the executive producer of Roadies as well as MTV Splitsvilla, another reality show which he had launched in 2008.

In 2004, Ram appeared in the first season of the reality television show Indian Idol as a contestant and was one of those who came to test his voice out in front of the judges – Anu Malik, Farah Khan and Sonu Nigam. He was rejected due to inefficient singing ability and signature attitude traits. He later explained in his autobiography that picking up a fight with the judges was actually a prank he played, on the suggestion of one of his colleagues and his wife who were working there as moderators.

In 2014, Ram announced that he won't be attached with Roadies from season X2, after being associated with the show for 11 years. He said on Twitter, "roadies is happening. I'm not gonna do it, though. I'm done with it. Moved on. About time, too."

Ram and his brother have also acted in a few Bollywood films like Tees Maar Khan in 2010 along with Akshay Kumar as Johari brothers though the film didn't do well at box office. In the same year, Ram also acted in Jhoota Hi Sahi with actor John Abraham. His acting was appreciated by critics. He was also nominated for the Best Singer Award at the GIMA Awards 2012 for his song "Manmani".

In April 2011, Ram, along with MTV Roadies co-hosts, his brother Rajiv and Rannvijay Singh had to face a difficult situation in Pune when some activists of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) tried to blacken their face. This was for using foul language on national television while they were participating in a promotional rally in the city.

Ram wrote his autobiography titled Rearview: My Roadies Journey, published in 2013.

In April 2016, Ram launched a web-series titled A.I.SHA – My Virtual Girlfriend, a webcam fiction show through the online content platform Arre.

Ram along with his brother have also performed in the comedy series Comedy Nights Bachao on Colors TV.

Book

Raghu has written a book on his life titled, Rearview: My Roadies Journey which was published by Rupa Publications and was available in print from 17 November 2013. The book talks about various phases of his life right from his childhood to being the judge on reality show Roadies on MTV India. He also talks about his love for music, brother Rajiv Lakshman and wife Sugandha. The book was well received by his fans and revealed quite a lot about him.