MTV Roadies 7 Sans Raghu Ram ?

For six years, Raghu Ram has endeared himself to the audiences with his rude and humiliating comments on MTV's reality adventure series 'Roadies', but it appears that the brain behind the show, might no longer be a part of its forthcoming season.

'Raghu has been with the show for many years. People know the kind of reactions to expect from him but this time he is not really a part of the show. In fact, having said that, we haven't yet revealed who will be interviewing the contestants. There's a huge surprise lying there... So you never know. It will blow your mind,' MTV general manager Ashish Patil told IANS at the launch of the seventh season of the show here Saturday.

The event featured host Rannvijay Singh, VJ Bani, creative director Vivek Bhushan alias Bumpy and Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan - but not Raghu.

Asked about his absence from the event, as well as from the promotional clips of the show, Patil said: 'Raghu isn't really a part of the show this time. With every season, we try and do something different and surprise the audience, so this is just a part of it'.

Till now, Raghu was known to be the creator of the show and so an integral part of it as well. In the last season, he had joined hands with his identical twin brother Rajiv Laxman to give double trouble to contestants, but had gradually chosen to reduce his presence on the show.

However, it seems now, that he has completely withdrawn from it.

But then, this should not come as a surprise as Raghu had hinted during the sixth season that he might no longer be at the helm of affairs.

Said Patil: 'There was one season where we had Gulshan Grover as the bad man, then we had Raghu Ram introduced in the interview rounds, then Raghu and Rajiv. So its just that now we are going to come up with something different and unpredictable.'

Entering its seventh year, 'Roadies' has not only proved to be one of the most popular annually-held shows on Indian television, but also the longest running reality show. This time, the 'Roadies' journey will kick start from the barren lands of Bhuj in Gujarat and will continue to Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania in Africa.

The show will be at its 'deadliest and wildest ever' as hopeful contestants will have to pass through a seven round audition process, which will begin online through www.mtvindia.com/roadies.

Irrfan Khan will be seen as a menace to contestants as he will throw open seven twists based on the seven sins - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride - during the show.

'I'm going to be there to spoil their lives,' he said.

The show will go on air in September.