Bigadda?s India Bike Rally-Bharat Ki Khoj (IBR), is a reality show with a difference. ?No cockroach swallowing, no grasshopper milkshakes, no beetle juice tequilas, okay, may be the odd tiger attack,? it says. IBR started on December 7, and is about riding the Yamaka bike through 40 cities in seven states in north and west India, covering 4,500 kilometers in 21 days. Suhani Dubey, a roadie from Mumbai, says ?This is just about exploring India and there?s no elimination process involved.?
Consider this. At the MTV Roadies, a participant has to focus more on defeating another participant and in a reality show like Big Boss, a contestant will start hating his/her counterparts to the fullest to draw attention. Amrita Kolhe, a biker at IBR and who had actively watched all seasons of MTV Roadies, explains, ?We all met at the audition and we are going to be together for three weeks. But we are really networked now and would stand in for one another in the future, unlike the other reality shows on TV, where you don?t even know whether you can stand even a contestant?s face once you part ways.?
Bigadda is part of Reliance ADA group and is one of the fastest growing web and mobile Indian social networking sites. Snehashish Das from Delhi, a Season 5 MTV Roadie, and a biker at the IBR draws the subtle nuances of the two. ?The common thing about Yamaha IBR and MTV Roadies is that it?s a journey from one point to the other and the difference being the survival of the fittest vis-?-vis a healthy format of biking. At Roadies, it was much of a pressure throughout, this is about maintaining a motorcycle diary while exploring India.?
The participants have an attitude towards biking and they are blogging about their experiences. Girish Kulkarni, Rally Supervisor, IBR, ?The reality shows so far have shown vulgarity and voyeurism. The tasks include chips and kulfi selling competition, kite making in Surat, puppeteering in Udaipur, tandoori roti baking at a dhaba in Karnal, bhangra/gidha in Chandigarh, a camel cart competition in Agra and a treasure hunt at Gwalior fort among other innovative tasks.?
Shivanandan Pare, CEO, Bigadda informs, ?It?s a Rs 85-lakh venture, IBR is all about the passion for biking . In the next season, we will try to focus on south and east India.? He adds, ?Over five million users of Bigadda will rate the bikers and the winner will be decided on the number of votes received on his or her blog posts, photos and videos. While the winning team will get Yamaha YZF-R15 and Fazer, first and second runner up and four other online users will win YZF-R15, Fazer, FZS and Gladiator SS .?
Visit Delhi?s Sonia Jain and Bangalore?s Thilak Raj Rao?s blog. They introduce themselves as insomniac ?motorheads?. For them the whole experience is about discovering India on two wheels. They help you with the routes to explore India as well and the short cuts. Thilak writes in his blog: ?If you are travelling to Ajmer from Udaipur, take a short cut through NH8, followed by NH78.
Ask Shane Fernandez, a student and a roadie, from Pune, what his expectations are from IBR, pat comes the reply, ?Remember Green Day and the words ?I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known, don?t know where it goes, but it?s home to me and I walk alone.??