Raghu and Rajiv — naam toh suna hoga? The twin brothers created one of India’s first and most popular reality shows. Not many know that Rajiv and Raghu joined MTV Roadies as associate producers and later became the faces of the show.
The two transformed the idea of a feel-good travel show into an aggressive, confrontational reality television phenomenon that eventually became iconic among Indian youth. While Rajiv initially built the show from behind the scenes, he was later brought in as a judge, and the twins eventually became the faces of the show.
While Raghu has been seen in films like Mirai, Good Bad Ugly and more, Rajiv has largely stayed away from mainstream entertainment projects. But where is Rajiv Lakshman now, and what has his journey been like? Let’s find out:
Rajiv dropped out of college
In a year-old LinkedIn post, Rajiv shared that he was a college dropout who took up an internship at a television company that eventually led him to MTV Roadies. He wrote, “In 1995 I dropped out of college (yes, that happened) and began working as an intern at TV18 in Delhi. I had failed at education and was NOT going to fail at life. So, I hustled.”
Rajiv helped launch Cyrus Broacha
Rajiv revealed that his seniors later moved him to MTV. Since the channel was searching for a voice that could connect with India’s youth, Rajiv conceptualised the show MTV-u, which explored campus culture and eventually helped launch the legendary television host Cyrus Broacha.
Then Roadies and Splitsvilla happened
While working at MTV, Rajiv, along with his brother Raghu, completely changed the concept of Roadies, making the show more confrontational and task-oriented. The show had originally been conceived as a travel-based reality series, but MTV gave the twins the freedom to experiment with their vision. Later, they also helped create the concept of the romance reality show Splitsvilla. Writing about the same on LinkedIn, Rajiv said, “Roadies and Splitsvilla, where I helped MTV find a fresh voice for a new generation. These shows became game-changers, and for the first time, I felt like I’d found my home in reality TV.”
However, Rajiv admitted that he left the show “at the peak of success.” The brothers bid farewell to Roadies after Season 11.
What is Rajiv doing now?
Today, Rajiv is the founder of BARD, a content and branded entertainment studio based in Mumbai. His LinkedIn profile describes the company as a studio that builds content intellectual property (IP) for D2C founders and brands. Describing his current work, Rajiv writes: “20 years building IPs people actually care about. Now helping brands & founders do the same.”