Roadies Rebirth: Prince Narula vs Neha Dhupia Over Preet — The Tie Nikhil Chinapa Had to Break

The new Roadies season was sold as OGs against NewGs. It took one episode for the OGs to start fighting each other. In the Roadies Rebirth premiere on October 16, Prince Narula and Neha Dhupia both wanted the same contestant, neither would back down, and host Rannvijay Singha had to hand the call to the third OG, Nikhil Chinapa. Nikhil went with Prince. That one pick tells you more about this season than any promo — because in this format, your own team-mates can cost you a player just as fast as the other side can.

Quick answers first

How the clash played out

Preet came in with the first set of auditionees in Episode 1. As per KhabriBhai, he won the panel over with a humble, down-to-earth manner. He said he is currently without a job, even though his father runs a security agency, and that he has his own plans he wants to chase. That was enough for two OG leaders to want him at once.

EntertainIndia's highlights of the episode call this the premiere's biggest confrontation: Prince and Neha disagreed over a promising male contestant, both wanted the recruit, and neither looked ready to give way. What started as a routine selection turned into a tense exchange between two experienced Roadies faces, and the panel hit a deadlock with no easy way forward.

That is when Rannvijay stepped in. As per EntertainIndia, the host asked Nikhil Chinapa to make the final decision. Nikhil went with Prince, and Preet landed in the OG gang with Prince's stamp. KhabriBhai puts the price at 17,500 roadiums. KhabriChachi, EkSukoon and Belloria's tracker all name the contestant as Preet from Gurgaon and describe the same tie — Prince and Neha both in, Nikhil settling it for Prince. EntertainIndia itself does not name Preet in its highlights piece, so the name comes from those episode trackers, not from that one report.

Why an OG vs OG fight hits different this season

In past seasons, gang leaders ran their own small gangs. A fight over a contestant was usually you against a rival leader. This season is not built that way. Roadies Rebirth has just two mega-gangs: the OGs — Prince, Neha and Nikhil — against the NewGs — Abhishek Malhan, Bani J and Baseer Ali, as per IWMBuzz and KhabriBhai.

Inside a mega-gang, the leaders still have their own stamps, their own individual roadium banks of 30,000 each on top of the shared 1 lakh common bank, and their own ideas about who is worth picking, as per KhabriBhai's format breakdown. So when Prince and Neha both want the same person, it is not a clean team-vs-team moment. It is two people on the same side pulling in opposite directions, with the third leader forced to pick a winner between his own team-mates.

That is also why the Preet pick stings a little for Neha even though the OGs still got him. The gang did not lose the player — but Neha lost the argument, and Prince got the stamp. In a season where only 16 roadies from each gang go on the journey, every stamp is a small claim on who built the team.

The rest of Episode 1, in brief

The Preet tie did not happen in isolation. The same episode sent all four of its first selected contestants to the OGs, as per KhabriChachi: Sneha from Kolkata, a professional arm-wrestler, went to Neha with her stamp for 7,000 roadiums; Shine from Shimla, who danced his way through, went to Prince with his stamp for 3,000 roadiums; and Karishma Talwar from Dehradun was snatched by the OGs after the NewGs had bid 22,000 roadiums, with Neha pressing the secret snatch button and stamping her in.

So the scoreboard after Episode 1 looks comfortable for the OGs — four picks, none for the NewGs from that first set. But the Preet moment shows the scoreboard does not tell the full story. The OGs won the night and still spent part of it arguing with each other.

The promo clash was already warning us

None of this came out of nowhere. Before the premiere, a promo had already shown the OG leaders snapping at each other over picks. As per TellyChakkar, Neha objected when Nikhil picked a contestant she had her eye on, Nikhil said the player would have ended up on his team anyway, and Prince said he wants the strongest contestants for his team — to which Neha replied that he is still learning and should keep learning.

A separate promo moment, also reported by TellyChakkar, had Neha calling Nikhil and Prince "Dhokebaaz" before walking away. Keep that in its place: it is a promo clip, cut for drama, not a scene from Episode 1 and not proof of a fallout. But it does show the makers knew the OG tension was a selling point before a single audition aired. Episode 1 then gave them a real version of it, with Preet in the middle.

One review of the premiere, from The Fox Daily, reads the same pattern the same way: Prince and Neha, even though they are on the same side, look like they are trying to get an edge over each other, and that internal rivalry adds another layer to the opening episodes. That is the reviewer's take, not a statement from any leader — but it matches what the Preet tie actually showed on screen.

Where to watch in India

Roadies Rebirth airs on MTV India at 7 PM IST on Fridays and Saturdays, and streams on JioHotstar and Netflix, as per KhabriBhai, IWMBuzz and TellyChakkar. Episode 1 aired on October 16, 2026, with a runtime of about 1 hour 37 minutes, as per KhabriBhai.

Our verdict

Confirmed: Prince Narula and Neha Dhupia both wanted Preet from Gurgaon in Episode 1, the pick deadlocked, Rannvijay asked Nikhil Chinapa to decide, and Nikhil settled it in Prince's favour — Preet joined the OGs with Prince's stamp for 17,500 roadiums. Buzz: anything about a lasting OG split, a grudge, or Neha turning on Prince over this one pick. Nobody has said that, and one tied pick does not make a broken team. What it does prove is that the OG vs NewG format has a second fight built into it — the one inside each mega-gang — and Episode 1 showed it in the very first week. If the OGs keep picking like this, the most interesting battles this season may not be against the NewGs at all.