All for the ROAD

They just can’t help it. When it’s Cyrus versus Cryus,one can expect quirkology at its best. While a straight-faced Nikhil Chinappa went on about MTV and the nitty gritty of Season 7 with all its seven deadly sins (in the Biblical sense),Cyrus Broacha and Cyrus Sahukar cracked up with their one-liners. In town for MTV Roadies auditions along with Imran Hashmi,the four stressed on one thing: Roadies makes a ‘man’ out of you. “It’s always been different,every season has something new to offer,and this time,there’ll be some nasty twists and turns. Once you’re through the grind,you come out a confident,better person with great inter-personal communication skills,” points out Chinappa,looking for humour this time. No wonder he got the best laughs with him to audition!

Cut to the guest judge for the day,Hashmi,and the actor’s looking forward to his next release,Tum Mile. “Then there’s Mohit Suri’s film on racial discrimination,” he takes the reference point to Australia. Nearer home,Hashmi too was a victim of discrimination,an issue he feels was ‘escalated and politicised’. “I was denied a flat in Mumbai because of my Muslim identity. I spoke for myself as an individual,and was pretty unhappy when the issue was trivialised. It’s being resolved peacefully by the Minorities Commission,and all I can say is that it can happen to anyone,and I am looking forward to the Equal Opportunities Bill,” Hashmi speaks for all religions and feels the secularism should be maintained. While he’s flexing muscles for another flick,Once Upon a Time in Mumbai based on the underworld,Hashmi denies reports of him doing the remake of Gary Cooper’s ‘Love in the Afternoon’.

Back to the MTV gang,and Sahukar points out how Roadies is tougher than Olympics. “It’s a badge of honour,” says Mr Serious Chinappa. Talk about the new generation of Veejays,and Chinappa feels that they are more into mulit-tasking these days. “More than presenting music,they are presenting lifestyle and connecting with the audience through various platforms,” says Chinappa. However,Broacha amuses us with a ‘hybrid’. “We’re creating a mutant. MTV was an animal kingdom till now,it will soon have some human faces.” Still at his political satire on ‘The Week That Wasn’t’,Broacha’s mulling the thought of hiring bodyguards once the programme starts airing in Hindi too. “If we go on about Mayawati and the sacred cows,we’ll have it,” he laughs,adding how his hero has been Jaspal Bhatti! In fact,both Cyrus’s have the Flop Show collection with them! Quiz them about the new groom on the block,and Broacha blurts,“Rahul Mahajan’s behaving like Sachin Tendulkar and expects girls to fall flat over him! He has nothing to his credit,at least Rakhi Sawant worked for it!”

Any more films? “Well,I’ve been shooting for Ayesha with Sonam Kapoor,” informs Sahukar. According to him,as he has played both man and woman on telly,he’s your ‘amoeba actor’. Pulling off caricatures is tough,but it’s everyday people Sahukar loves to portray,like Pidhu and Semi Girebal. “Actually,Simi ji slapped me thinking I was the one pulling off the spoof,” Broacha butts in again. Seriously,isn’t there a single serious moment in your life? “It was. Shaadi.”