Reddit reacts as Nikhil Chinapa reveals how much he was paid for MTV Roadies

VJ and DJ Nikhil Chinapa has been an integral part of MTV shows such as Splitsvilla and MTV Roadies. In a recent AMA (ask me anything) session on Reddit, Nikhil made several revelations about his stint on MTV Roadies. He had co-judged the show with Raghu Ram in seasons 4, 5, and 7, and from the 13th season, Nikhil was seen as a gang leader on the reality show alongside Rannvijay Singha, Prince Narula, and Neha Dhupia. Also read: Rhea Chakraborty says ‘aapko kya laga mai wapas nahi aungi’ as she joins MTV Roadies 19 as gang leader. Watch

On Wednesday, he wrote on Reddit, “Nikhil Chinapa here. I’m an instigator, a disruptive influence, a DJ, festival curator, scuba diver and also, I’m that MTV guy. Ask me anything.” While a few called him ‘legend’, said they had a crush on him, and thanked him ‘for the memories’, others asked Nikhil some serious questions.

One redditor asked, “Hey Nikhil bhai (brother), how much did Roadies pay per episode to the judges and contestants?” In response, Nikhil said, “We get paid in cheese sandwiches. I got 5 sandwitches on the last season.” When another person chimed in and joked, “As someone who has worked for MTV, can you please stop belittling MTV pay. They also gave us vada pav on the last day of shoot!” To which, Nikhil said, “They gave me a broom on the last day and asked me to clean up. I was lucky. Cyrus (presumingly Cyrus Broacha or Cyrus Sahukar) got the toilet brush.”

When asked about the ‘one thing he’d want to change about Roadies’, Nikhil said “I used to hate doing the round-table chats with everyone. It was a sponsor commitment…” Another Redditor asked the former Roadies judge, “Why did you guys bully people on Roadies? Was it all scripted or was it just you guys acting tough? There were some genuine people with whom you guys have behaved very badly! Was it all scripted?”

In response, Nikhil said, “It wasn’t scripted but the idea of the show was to put people under pressure (sometimes over nonsensical/ irrational topics) to see if they’d be able to react. The main show was actually a lot tougher – and if you couldn’t hack the pressure in the auditions, you would t be able to hack it on the show.” Another person asked, “How much of MTV Roadies is scripted? Like really.” To him Nikhil replied, “Can I be honest? Zero.”

Nikhil Chinapa, who has also hosted reality shows such as India’s Got Talent 2, had revealed why he opted to leave the popular reality TV show Roadies with the other three judges Rannvijay Singha, Neha Dhupia, and Prince Narula in a 2022 interview.

He had told Dainik Bhaskar in Hindi, “I did not quit. They were changing the format of the show. If you have noticed, there have been a lot of changes in the show’s format right from the beginning. The idea was to make the ex Roadies compete with the new roadies and hence the new format didn’t need the gang leaders. That’s why the show’s format was changed.”