The Simpsons is a much loved animated TV series that has been running for a current 38 season; with a guaranteed 40th season. One character who caused controversy was Apu Nahasapeemapetilon. It wasn't because of his appearance but because of his voice.
Hank Azaria voiced him from the beggininfg but a backlash that Apu wasn't being voiced by an equivalent (race wise) actor. As a result, Apu was cut out of the series about a decade ago.
This ommission led to even more backlash from fans and that led to the abrupt re-entrance of Apu in the latest Simpsons episode.
It’s not easy for The Simpsons to make the news these days. The show has been on so long and exhausted so many storylines that it’s hard to be relevant in 2026. There was the announcement of a second movie. That was cool but outside of that; it would take a lot for Homer and his family to make a headline. Leave it to Apu Nahasapeemapetilon to be that element to bring the show back into relevance.
Across 38 seasons of "The Simpsons," the Halloween-themed "Treehouse of Horror" episodes have always been a treat of spooky stand-alone storylines. On Sunday, the show surprised viewers with a major resurrection: Apu, the beloved Kwik-E-Mart operator who hadn't been heard for the better part of a decade, spoke once again in Springfield.
He and his wife, Manjula, were back with a meaty plotline — and the voices of actual Indian American actors: Sunil Malhotra, a veteran voice-over artist and Janina Gavankar ("The Morning Show").
There was a lot of discussion and debate about this. Was Apu a racist caricature or just a caricature in general based on stereotypes; but as absurd as anyone else on The Simpsons? Was the problem with Apu or with people who are ignorant enough to judge people based on a cartoon? And once Apu stopped appearing on the show; was this necessary or was it taking away one of the few representations of people of India in American society?
"Bringing Apu back feels like a reclamation. It truly IS his homecoming," Malhotra and Gavankar said Sunday in a joint Instagram post.
If you’re not of South Asian descent, you can’t really comment on how the character of Apu makes you feel or how you relate to him. Even then, you’re going to have people within a community who are not bothered and others who are. A person can only be emblematic of their own life experience, not anyone else’s. But now Apu is back and being voiced by Sunil Malhotra.
According to Malhotra, "When my agent called me about a Simpsons audition, I knew exactly what role it was for and the idea actually made my stomach sink. But admittedly, part of me was also curious. It had been eight years since Apu had spoken on the show and it got me thinking: Did the writers’ room look different now? Could they bring him back in a way that acknowledged and apologized for past mistakes? Could I make the character my own, and reclaim him in some way? And could they achieve all of that in an unmistakably ‘Simpsons’ way that didn’t disappoint fans?"
Apu's unheralded return is a remarkable twist to a years long discourse about how the character has represented a painful stereotype for some South Asian Americans. After a 2017 documentary by comedian, Hari Kondabolu, "The Problem With Apu," the character was largely exiled from the screen.
In "The Problem With Apu," Kondabolu, a self-described fan of the Fox show, tried to process his misgivings. He interviewed a slew of celebrities of South Asian origin, including Kal Penn, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Hasan Minhaj, about growing up with the character. They shared memories of being bullied and called "Apu" as an insult. Adding to their view of Apu as just a caricature was that Hank Azaria, a white actor, voiced him.
With the full name of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon Jr., he felt like the "forever foreigner, someone who represents Indians in the United States through this sole typology of being a convenience store owner, being a recent immigrant, having this heavy accent, being really limited in this sort of like American identity," says Bhoomi Thakore, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut.
Thakore notes that Kondabolu's film raised the notion that Apu was the only portrayal of an Indian character most people knew when he debuted in 1990.
Azaria stepped away from the role after the documentary, continuing to voice other Simpsons characters, as Apu fell silent; seen only in the background. Kondabolu, however, had never called for Apu to be canceled. On Monday, he praised The Simpsons for devising "a clever solution to all this" and hiring Malhotra and Gavankar.
"I’m also still proud of the public conversation about race and representation my documentary started," he told The Associated Press in an e-mailed statement. "Finally, I’m hoping this stops all the hatemail in many languages that has been sent my way over the past decade."
In a 2018 episode, “The Simpsons” responded to Kondabolu's documentary by having Lisa Simpson bemoan how “something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. ... What can you do?” The camera then panned to a framed photo of Apu. The gag was branded by some as weak for not directly addressing the controversy.
In a 2020 New York Times interview, Azaria, who by then hadn't voiced Apu in a few years, announced he would bow out because “it just didn't feel right.” Later that year, in response to racial reckoning demonstrations, “The Simpsons” announced it would no longer cast white voice actors as characters of color. The show then recast two Black characters, Carl Carlson and Dr. Julius Hibbert, with Black actors.
Kondabolu had not spoken with “The Simpsons” producers about Apu’s comeback, he confirmed to the AP, “but they didn’t owe me that.” And it does sound like Apu is here to stay.
"We love this character and wanted to bring him back in a smart, Simpsons-y way that allowed him to evolve," executive producer Matt Selman said in a statement. "We’re excited by what Sunil has already brought to the role and look forward to seeing more of Apu in the future."
A few weeks after The Simpsons responded to the documentary, author and producer, Amar Shah, wrote a series of social media posts and then a Washington Post op-ed on why he felt mostly sentimental towards Apu. When he watched Apu, he thought of his own Indian father hard at work as a convenience store owner and how that shaped his Florida childhood.
"Apu even now is a character that I wouldn't mind my kids seeing represented because they'll see aspects of themselves and of their own grandparents," said Shah, reflecting on his 2018 piece. "I can totally empathize with someone of South Asian origin having a different POV (point of view) than me but this is my childhood. This is my story."
After watching this latest episode, Shah didn't sense any significant difference with Malhotra's performance.
"Obviously, there's a different voice, tenor, texture and all that. But, the character is always going to be there, his genuine humanity," Shah said. "I think if they had incorporated this change earlier, it would have been a lot better."
At a time of anti-South Asian hate, Apu's return is welcomed.
Apu is being revived amid a climate of rising anti-South Asian and Indian hate. Stop AAPI Hate and other research groups have found online use of racist slurs and threats against South Asians and Indians have jumped in the past few years.
Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French, a Republican, recently posted a photo of South Asian University of Texas students cheering at a football game and called them "a problem." Just last week, a man was charged with planning a mass shooting at a Hindu temple outside Chicago. Against that backdrop, Shah welcomes the show's careful approach reincarnating the character.
"It's great to see that the show has evolved in time and now, especially with the discrimination and, really, the targeting of South Asians and Indian Americans as of late — questioning our patriotism, our American identity and even whether we're college football fans," he said.
The return also coincides with much more representation of prominent South Asian Americans, such as actor and showrunner, Mindy Kaling and people who have broken barriers in office, like New York City Mayor, Zohran Mamdani and former Vice President, Kamala Harris.
When Apu first appeared, says University of Virginia associate professor of media studies Shilpa Davé; he was one of the only consistent representations of South Asians on TV.
Now, she said, "South Asians have become a part of the landscape from 'Bridgerton' to … 'Never Have I Ever' and there’s a plethora of different kinds of representation."
King of the Hill left the air before a lot of the discussions around cultural representation took place. But they had their own character, Kahn Souphanousinphone from Laos, being voiced by a white man. In this case, Toby Huss. One thing the show was very adamant about, though, was emphasising that Kahn and his family weren’t just a generic East or Southeast Asian family.
They were Laotian. Incidentally, they may have been the only Laotian representation on television. When King of the Hill returned with new episodes in 2025, they didn’t write Kahn off. Huss was replaced by Ronny Chieng and the character continued being a vital part of the show.
Apu could've been handled in a similar way. There didn’t need to be a decade of absence to have a better cultural representation of someone on The Simpsons. Diversity in the writers' room and the voice acting booth can be a wonderful and amazing thing. It’s time that production teams fully understood that and used it to their advantage.
In the past, it was made clear that The Simpsons would "definitely" address the controversies around Apu. It took nearly a decade but that's finally happened with his recasting in "The Revengening." However, the question now becomes if this new performer behind Apu will be a permanent change.
In a Variety piece talking about this (as well as the casting of Janina Gavankar as Manjula; Apu's significant other), showrunner Matt Selman confirmed that this would be the start of a new era of Apu rather than a one-off appearance.
"We love this character, and wanted to bring him back in a smart, 'Simpsons'-y way that allowed him to evolve," Selman explained to Variety. "We're excited by what Sunil has already brought to the role, and look forward to seeing more of Apu in the future."
Given all the pre-release secrecy over Apu showing up in "The Revengening," there's no word on what specific upcoming Simpsons episodes will feature Apu and Manjula. However, this high-concept episode did deliver a creative and meta way of reintegrating Apu back into the world of Springfield.
Such tact was necessary for a divisive character that's simultaneously been received as one of the 50 best Simpsons characters of all time and as a racist caricature emblematic of the limited roles available for South Asian individuals in American culture. One thing is for sure: Sunil Malhotra already sounds perfect in the role.
I'm glad that Apu is back. There is an aura about him that make him feel like a core character in the series. For me, It will get some time to adjust to the new voice but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Cultural equality is important in all societies.
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