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Roadies Rebirth Review: The OGs Bicker, the NewGs Spark — and Bani J Walks Away With the Premiere
Twenty seasons of sweat, showdowns and shout-fests, and Roadies still refuses to ride quietly into the sunset. Instead, for its 21st outing — grandly titled Rebirth — the granddaddy of Indian reality adventure has done something deliciously self-aware: split its own gang leaders into OGs and NewGs, turned the show’s history into ammunition, and dared its veterans to prove the fire still burns. The first two episodes, streaming on JioHotstar and Netflix with fresh drops every Friday and Saturday at 7 pm, crackle — most of the time.
For the uninitiated, Roadies practically invented a genre. From the days when Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman ran the audition halls, to Rannvijay Singha graduating from inaugural contestant to gang leader and host, to the gang-warfare era of Season 12 winner Prince Narula and Neha Dhupia — becoming a Roadie is now an ambition in itself, its viral moments shaping a generation’s very ideas of fame and fitness. The formula is simple: leaders pick their squads, crisscross India, and the last contestant standing wins it for the gang.
Rebirth tweaks the recipe. The OGs — Nikhil Chinappa, Prince, Neha — square off against NewGs Bani J, Baseer Ali and Abhishek Malhan, and the premiere mines old loyalties for fresh rivalries. Chinappa, fresh from another reality stint, Alliance, is the sharpest blade in the drawer — fit, focussed, disarmingly plain-spoken. He reminds Bani he picked her back in Season 4, needles Baseer about Season 13, and generally behaves like a man who has read the rulebook and written half of it.
Bani, though, is the revelation. Fresh from Four More Shots Season 4, she seems most herself on a Roadies stage — winning arm wrestles, banging out pull-ups, entertaining without trying too hard. She makes a compelling case for her chair. Baseer, a veteran of both contestant and host duties, knows the machinery but is still hunting for a voice. Abhishek, the true outsider, strategises hard and occasionally out-talks his fellow NewGs — the effort visible, the polish pending.
As for the rest of the OG bench: Prince and Neha remain wedded to the old playbook — shouting, mind games, interruptions, with Neha cutting contestants mid-sentence. Worse, these two teammates are busy wrestling each other for the upper hand. Intensity, yes. Reinvention, not quite.
The contestants supply the heart. The auditions lean into stories of personal rebirth, and Karishma Talwar — once Prince’s Splitsvilla 8 co-star — speaks of losing her father, surviving an abusive marriage and finding herself again, moving the judges and sparking chemistry with Prince so potent he had to issue an online clarification. Preet Tanwar, brother of Bigg Boss 20’s Gullu, arrives armed with wit instead of washboard abs — and the season wisely lets charm count.
Full marks, too, for the spine on display: Chinappa dismantling a contestant who wanted the word “aurat” banned and then dodged the victim-blaming question; the leaders sending an influencer who built content on objectifying women away to work on himself. No seat at the table for that behaviour. About time.
The verdict? Rebirth opens with a workable blend of nostalgia and renewal, and regular viewers will be hooked. But the real test arrives when the journey begins and eliminations bite. If this phoenix truly means to rise, it must burn more than an old logo — the familiar aggression has to go too.
— Ends
