MS Dhoni hosts Allen Online’s Rise to the Top

NATIONAL: Swapping the dressing room for the studio, MS Dhoni has stepped into a new role as host of Rise to the Top, a multi-episode student conversation series launched by Allen Online.

The series, now streaming on Allen Online’s youtube channel, seeks to move the spotlight away from rank lists and scorecards to the human stories behind academic success. Rather than interrogating study timetables, Dhoni steers conversations towards ambition, doubt, family support and the turning points that shape young lives.

The opening episode, titled Sapne Dekho, features Sekh Galib Raza from rural Odisha and Arpita Ghosh from a remote village in West Bengal. Both are now enrolled in government medical colleges, having navigated social, financial and personal hurdles along the way.

For Ghosh, the ambition to study medicine is entwined with her father’s long-held dream. Raised in a village where few girls pursue higher education, she speaks of family encouragement and a determination to return as her community’s first doctor. Raza traces his calling to childhood visits to a local hospital with his mother, where he observed doctors calming anxious families. Despite health setbacks and multiple attempts, he eventually secured admission to a government medical college.

Allen Online CEO Rakesh Ranjan, said the idea behind the series was to foreground the journeys that shape students rather than merely the outcomes that define them. Having Dhoni at the helm, he argued, adds a layer of lived experience around handling pressure and expectation.