THE SIMPSONS RECASTS APU WITH SUNIL MALHOTRA

The Simpsons gave Apu Nahasapeemapetilon his first spoken lines since 2017 in an episode broadcast on Sunday 18 October, with Sunil Malhotra taking over the role from Hank Azaria. Malhotra debuted in “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening”. The episode revealed Apu as a masked figure causing havoc among his neighbours. Janina Gavankar joined the cast as Manjula, Apu’s wife. Jan Hooks and Tress MacNeille previously voiced Manjula.

Azaria voiced Apu, the Kwik-E-Mart owner, using an Indian accent before criticism focused on the character’s portrayal of Indian people. He confirmed in 2020 that he would stop voicing Apu, who remained silent in subsequent episodes. Indian American comedian Hari Kondabolu examined the portrayal and its effect on South Asian people in the documentary The Problem with Apu. The documentary has two reported release years, 2017 and 2020. Azaria later apologised, telling Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast that he felt he should “personally apologise” to Indian people in the United States.

Malhotra was born in India and moved to the United States as a child. The Simpsons producers kept his casting undisclosed before the episode and required non-disclosure agreements for its table read. In a joint Instagram post, Malhotra and Gavankar wrote: “Bringing Apu back feels like a reclamation. It truly IS his homecoming.” The programme’s bosses said Apu and the Nahasapeemapetilon family would appear more frequently in future episodes.