He maybe lactose-intolerant, but had to survive on bread and cheese daily, to avoid freezing to death in the Arctic. VJ-turned-IPL anchor and now reality tele-vision show host, Yudishtir Urs, better known as VJ Yudi, shrugs this off as just one of the challenges he faced during the shooting of Mission Arctic. The new series on National Geographic will see Yudi taking eight contestants to the end of the world, literally, where they are put through grueling tasks. “Being on Mission Arctic was kind of a surreal experience, because we all got to travel to this amazing place. It’s very unlike a regular Indian reality show, though. We stayed away from all of the fighting and drama, so none of the regular masala. It was just about capturing what it feels like to be in harsh conditions, and what it means to over-come them. I loved every bit of it. It was a fully power-packed experience,” Yudi recalls.
The players
Elaborating a little on the show’s format, he says, “There are eight contestants from different walks of life, who have all been tested thoroughly for fitness. You have someone from the corporate world, another is a fashion director and so on. So it’s an eclectic bunch of people. We started train-ing here, in Shimla, so that everybody could get acclimatised. Then, once we got to the Arctic, it was about elements of adventure, and they had to undergo certain tasks, like mountain climbing, biking, kayaking and more.”
Bizarre effect
The experience is one that he probably would have never known otherwise, feels Yudi. “It’s really not the kind of place you regularly go to. Everybody I knew was also so excited for me. I remember we went to Senja, this island in the northern Arctic region (Norway), right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where there was daylight 24/7. It was such a bizarre experience, we never knew when it was night,” he says.
Meat, the answer
The challenges were severe. “You have to worry all the time about things like having your feet freeze and fall right off! You’re so cold, that you can’t eat anything but bread, meat and cheese. I don’t like all three – I’m a vegetarian and I’m allergic to dairy products. But I had to risk stuffing my face with cheese every day, because otherwise I’d freeze to death! You’re dealing with temperatures like -11°C and it was raining. Yet, everybody was so fired up all the time,” reveals Yudi.
Chasing adventure
The self-proclaimed “adventure junkie” says he can trace his love for action-packed experiences back to college. “I’m from Bangalore and it’s a pretty big hub for motorsports. When I was in college, my brother had a motor-bike, which he never let me touch. So when he was asleep, I would take it out for a spin,” he recalls. So does he prefer this format to music or sports shows? “Definitely. I think this is more my style, it’s what I’m passionate about,” he says. So if he could take his love for adventure one step further, what show would he love to be on? “Fear Factor or Man Versus Wild for sure,” comes the reply.
Mission Arctic airs on National Geographic at 9 pm every Saturday& Sunday.
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