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He’s gone nose-to-nose with Lord Sugar on The Apprentice, made millions, lost millions and been declared bankrupt…twice.
Now serial entrepreneur Raj Dhonota - who grew up in Dartford - is heading to the US vowing to make his fortune one last time.
Yet, having appeared on the very first series of The Apprentice - the 18th reaches its conclusion this evening on BBC1 - he admits his experience was not at all what he expected.
Back then, the prize was a “six-figure salary” working for Lord Sugar’s company. Today it’s a £250,000 investment in a joint business venture.
Raj, now 49, reached week nine of the process back in 2005 before being told “you’re fired”.
Speaking to KentOnline he reveals how one contestant on the show attempted to escape the strict conditions they were forced to live under during filming, which included not being able to speak to their families for weeks and how almost none of the contestants actually wanted to work for the businessman.
And he revealed he barely had any dealings with Lord Sugar but that the eventual winner - Tim Campbell, who now acts as an advisor to Sugar on the show - was “fully deserving” and “one of the nicest people”.
“I only watched the first four episodes of the series I was in,” he revealed this week. “I saw enough in those first four episodes to think it was a load of trash.
“The portrayal versus what actually happened in reality was completely different - there's a lot of manipulation in the editing.
“I had no interest in seeing the other episodes I was in and have not watched the show since.”
It’s a familiar refrain from those who have found themselves on the altar of reality TV - but you can watch the episode in which he received his marching orders below.
But he is perhaps one of the very few who can claim ignorance. Because when he first applied for the show, no one in this country had heard of it.
It spawned from the US version which started the year before - and was famously fronted for 14 years by none other than Donald Trump before he swapped the boardroom for the Oval Office.
In the years leading up to his TV appearances, Raj had started up H for Homes in his twenties - an estate agency business based in Bexley Village.
“It was like Purple Bricks but 15 to 20 years too early,” he admits today. By using direct marketing and the internet as its sales platform, he had high hopes.
“I took it from zero staff to 25 and zero properties to 200 in just 18 months,” he adds.
However, he struggled to convince enough people the internet was the future for buying and selling property and by the end of 2001 the business had collapsed and he was declared bankrupt.
As he waited for his bankruptcy conditions to be discharged - which then took three years - he saw an advert on the BBC website, along with a picture of Amstrad supremo the then-Sir Alan Sugar.
“The advert,” he recalls, “said they were looking for the 14 best entrepreneurial minds in the UK.
“At the time I wasn't interested in the prize of employment because I was planning my next business. But I filled in the forms - and a lot of my answers were tongue-in-cheek to be honest with you - as it seemed like a good opportunity.
“To my surprise I got invited to the next round in London.”
Within three months of that first application and more auditions, he was offered the chance to appear.
“Throughout the process,” he says, “I was always 50/50 as to whether I wanted to continue with it. But when I got invited onto the show, my family said it could be good for me - they said it sounded like a business programme and was probably something I should be doing. So I was persuaded to go onto it.”
The reality, however, would come as something of a shock.
“I was expecting it to be a serious business challenge,” he says. “ But on the first couple of tasks I just found out it was schoolboy stuff and not the challenge I was expecting.
“The conditions around each task were so limiting it didn't give individuals the opportunity to properly express their business talents. You were given four or five narrow options as to what you could do with that task and it was always a race against time.”
He was not alone in feeling the show was not meeting his expectations. Other more business-minded candidates were similarly uncomfortable with how things were playing out. Including one who tried to make a break for it.
“Some tried to leave the show,” he reveals. “I'll mention no names, but there was a task and they took the petty cash to try and catch a train home. Those who had a serious business background were surprised by the show.
“But there were others there who wanted a media profile or a route into the entertainment part of it. They probably enjoyed the experience.”
It’s certainly paid off, still to this day, for some.
Among those on that first series were James Max - today a broadcaster and journalist - and long-time Loose Women star Saira Khan.
She was, according to Raj, one of the few who actually wanted to win the show’s top prize.
He explains: “I think it's fair to say the majority of people wanted to win the competition, but they didn't want the prize to go and work at Brentwood for Amstrad for a year. The two that did, got into the final.”
Saira Khan was one - the other Tim Campbell. He was working in the marketing department of London Underground when he applied.
He won, took the job and hasn’t looked back since - being awarded an MBE in 2012 and, in recent seasons, appearing alongside Baroness Brady and Lord Sugar on The Apprentice.
“No one begrudged him winning the show,” says Raj. “He was one of the nicest people on the set. It was an amazing opportunity for him.”
The tasks were filmed every other day - compressing the nine weeks shown on TV into around five weeks of filming. But restrictions for the candidates were tight.
Raj remembers: “It was intense from that perspective. It was challenging that we weren't allowed to speak to anybody, not allowed to use the internet, couldn't call home. We were allowed one phone call home in the first few weeks and then one physical meeting with them for those of us who reached the latter stages.
“Plus you had TV researchers fresh out of university telling you what you can and can't do when you've been in business for however many years,” he laughs.
The prize for winning one task did, however, let him get to spend some time with Lord Sugar. Rarely spotted outside of the boardroom scenes, the winning candidates got to have a meal with him at his favourite restaurant in Knightsbridge.
“He's to the point,” Raj recalls, “he comes across abrupt, but behind that he's not as ferocious as people make him out to be.
Lord Sugar comes across abrupt, but behind that he's not as ferocious as people make him out to be.
“I think he's quite a fair person. But, obviously, for media purposes he's portrayed slightly differently. I've no doubt in daily business dealings he's a frank person but those are the people I like.”
All these years on, Raj admits the show was a double-edged sword: “I don't want to sound ungrateful; ultimately, when you have 10,000 applicants - which I think is what they had for that first series - and you get selected for the final 14 that's an achievement to some extent. But it wasn't for me.
“When I got fired I was pretty glad.”
Returning to his comfort zone of starting his own businesses, life after The Apprentice proved successful for Raj.
He launched a string of tech ventures - the bulk of which proved profitable and saw him become a millionaire, generating tens of millions of pounds of revenues and creating plenty of jobs.
“Between the end of The Apprentice and up to 2014, I launched eight tech ventures. Six were a success and when I exited them, they gave me the money to do what I then focused on.”
But while he rode the highs, he admitted he took a step out of his comfort zone when he launched his own investment fund - and paid a heavy price which ultimately saw him subject to a lengthy fraud probe by the police.
“The investment portfolio was a different kind of beast,” he says, “it wasn't me at the helm, it was me trying to invest in entrepreneurs which I felt reflected what I was trying to do personally.
“We didn't get the returns we expected.”
The fund collapsed and his fame on The Apprentice meant he got plenty of column inches chewing over its collapse.
The police carried out a fraud probe - it was, says Raj, “the best thing to happen”.
He explains: “The whole point was to try and fulfil entrepreneurs’ dreams, so when you're letting them down and that becomes public, it obviously tarnishes the reputation of all the pretty good stuff you've done for the previous two decades.
“The police investigation was the best thing that could have happened because at least it cleared my name. It confirmed there was no wrongdoing it was just a genuine business failure.”
The collapse had a sting in its tale too - with Raj forced to declare himself bankrupt again.
“It's not something to be proud about,” he says, “but I don't hide from the setbacks I've had as I tend to come back stronger. It's not something you aim to do.
I don't hide from the setbacks I've had as I tend to come back stronger.
“The first one was business, the second was a moral choice as my investment portfolio ran into trouble. I was trying to avoid letting so many people down.
“Ultimately, it's how you come back from them rather than just giving up.”
It now takes a year for a bankruptcy declaration to be discharged and it lapsed earlier this year.
Now Raj is hoping for one final success story - and the fulfilment of his dream of launching a business venture in the US.
He’s coy - as you would imagine - as to exactly what his project is, saying only “it’s an app I believe most working professionals in the States will want to use”.
He’ll split his time between his home in West Wickham in Bromley - which he shares with his wife (who he runs a successful beauty treatment spa in Bromley with) and 11-year-old son - and California.
He hopes to be out there within weeks and imagines devoting four to five years to making it a success.
After that, he is vowing to spend more time with his family.
