EXCLUSIVE: Romesh Ranganathan explains how 'devastating' moment in new Sky series changed his life
Romesh Ranganathan has opened up about a difficult decision he made in his new series, Can't Knock the Hustle, which led to an eye-opening revelation
Romesh Ranganathan has revealed how a tough choice he faced whilst filming his latest series, Can't Knock the Hustle, sparked a life-changing moment of clarity.
The fresh four-part Sky programme draws from the popular British funnyman's recent stand-up tour, Hustle, which makes some daring statements about our work-obsessed contemporary society.
After the comedy special in the opening episode, Romesh tests his ideas in the following three instalments, journeying across India, South Korea, Canada and the USA to conduct the investigation he ought to have carried out initially.
Speaking exclusively to Reach, he discloses that an encounter with a monk in India might have had the most profound effect on his personal life beyond entertainment.
"He made me burn a pair of trainers as a part of an exercise in detaching myself from material things," he remembered, reports the Express.
"And I've ended up giving all my shoes to my son. I really did detach. It's not helped him though, I think it's made him more materialistic!"
Whilst the trainers remain within the household, destroying one pair prompted Romesh to seriously contemplate both his personal and modern society's relationship with material goods.
"It did make me reflect... I think we kind of get caught up in this whole idea that your job is your be all and end all," the comedian clarified.
"And achieving success is what we measure ourselves by. We throw ourselves into that so completely and it has made me reflect on that a lot, actually.
"The whole idea of the show is to really try and explore all of that thinking and I have come away from it thinking differently about things."
Despite challenging his worldview, Romesh admitted he still found it rather painful to say goodbye to one of his favourite luxuries in such brutal fashion.
"Yeah, it was devastating to be honest with you," he confessed.
"I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal. Basically, we go up a hill and he sort of said to me... he knew that I was obsessed with trainers.
"So he said it's a good exercise to disconnect yourself from material possessions by destroying some.
"And I did find myself wishing that I had worn a worse pair of trainers up there, because I had worn quite a nice pair of Adidas, you know what I mean? So I did experience a bit of regret.
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"But it did actually make me think about it. The sad thing is, they only had a pair of sandals to wear down this hill and as we were going down there's no grip on the sandals so I fell completely on my a***.
"So obviously production thought that was hilarious and put it in the show. It was a real exercise of detaching from material things and also detaching from dignity and self-esteem. It was a double whammy."
Romesh: Can't Knock the Hustle premieres Tuesday, 23rd September on Sky Max and NOW at 10pm.