Through 38 seasons of “The Simpsons” The Halloween-themed “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have always been a treat of spooky standalone stories. On Sunday, the show surprised viewers with a major resurrection: Apu, the beloved Kwik-E-Mart operator who hadn’t been heard from in nearly a decade, spoke out once again in Springfield.
He and his wife, Manjula, were back with a meaty plot – and the voices of real Indian-American actors: Sunil Malhotra, a veteran voiceover artist, and Janina Gavankar (“The Morning Show”).
“Bringing Apu back feels like a payback. It truly IS his coming home,” Malhotra and Gavankar said in a joint Instagram post on Sunday.
Apu’s unprecedented return is a remarkable twist to a years-long narrative about how the character 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.
How a documentary on Apu became a turning point
In “The Problem With Apu”, Kondabolu, a self-proclaimed fan of the Fox show, tried to deal with his apprehensions. He has interviewed a large number of celebrities of South Asian descent, including Kal Penn, Utkarsh Ambudkar and Hasan Minhaj, about growing up with the character. They shared their memories of being bullied and called “Apu” as an insult. Adding to their view of Apu as a mere caricature, as Hank Azaria, a white actor, told him.
With the full name Apu Nahasapeemapetilon Jr., he felt like “a lifelong outsider, someone who represents Indians in the United States through just this typology of convenience store owner, recent immigrant, with this heavy accent, being really limited in that kind of American identity,” says Bhoomi Thakore, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut. Thakore notes that Kondabolu’s film raised the idea that Apu was the only portrait of an Indian character that most people knew from his debut in 1990.
Azaria stepped away from the role after the documentary, continuing to voice other characters from the “Simpsons”, as Apu fell silent, only visible in the background. Kondabolu, however, never called for Apu’s cancellation. On Monday, he praised “The Simpsons” for devising “a clever solution to all of this” and hiring Malhotra and Gavankar.
“I am also still proud of the public conversation about race and representation that my documentary started,” he told The Associated Press in an emailed statement. “Finally, I hope this puts an end to all the hateful messages in many languages that have been sent to me over the last decade.”
After years in the background, Apu seems here to stay
In a 2018 episode, “The Simpsons” responded to Kondabolu’s documentary by having Lisa Simpson lament that “something that started decades ago and was applauded and innocuous is now politically incorrect… What can you do?” The camera then panned to a framed photo of Apu. The gag was called by some weak because it did not directly address the controversy.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2020, Azaria, who had not voiced Apu for several years, announced that he would step down because “it just didn’t feel right.” Later that year, in response to racial protests, “The Simpsons” announced that it would no longer cast white actors as characters of color. The series then recast two black characters, Carl Carlson and Dr. Julius Hibbert, with black actors.
Kondabolu hadn’t spoken with The Simpsons producers about Apu’s return, he confirmed to the AP, “but they didn’t owe me that.” And it looks like Apu is here to stay.
“We love this character and wanted to bring him back in a smart, Simpsons-style way that allowed him to evolve,” executive producer Matt Selman said in a statement. “We’re excited about what Sunil has already brought to this role and we look forward to seeing more of Apu in the future.”
Apu has also been adopted by South Asians, despite controversy
A few weeks later “The Simpsons” responded About the documentary, writer and producer Amar Shah wrote a series of social media posts and then a Washington Post op-ed explaining why he felt especially sentimental toward Apu. When he watched Apu, he thought of his own Indian father who worked hard as a convenience store owner and how that shaped his childhood in Florida.
“Even today, Apu is a character that I wouldn’t want my children to see depicted, because they will see aspects of themselves and their own grandparents,” says Shah, reflecting on his 2018 work. “I can totally empathize with someone of South Asian descent having a different POV (point of view) than me, but that’s my childhood. That’s my story.”
After watching this latest episode, Shah did not feel any significant difference with Malhotra’s performance.
“Obviously, there’s a different voice, tenor, texture and all that. But the character will always be there, his true humanity,” Shah says. “I think if they had incorporated this change earlier it would have been much better.”
In a time of anti-South Asian hatred, Apu’s return is welcome
Apu is reborn in a climate of rise of anti-South Asian and Indian hatred. Stop AAPI Hate and other research groups have found that the online use of racist slurs and threats against South Asians and Indians has increased in recent years.
Republican Texas Railroad Commission candidate Bo French 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. In this context, Shah commends the series’ cautious approach to reincarnating the character.
“It’s great to see that the show has evolved over time and now, especially with the discrimination and, in fact, targeting of South Asians and American Indians in recent times – questioning our patriotism, our American identity and even whether we are college football fans,” he says.
The return also coincides with much greater representation of prominent South Asian Americans, such as the actor and showrunner. Mindy Kaling, and people who broke down barriers to power, like Zohran Mamdani, mayor of New York And former Vice President Kamala Harris.
When Apu first appeared, says Shilpa Davé, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, he was one of the only consistent portrayals of South Asians on television.
Today, she says, “South Asians are a part of the landscape, from ‘Bridgerton’ to… ‘Have I Never’ and there are a plethora of different types of representation.” »
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Associated Press reporter Mallika Sen contributed to this report.
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