After almost a decade away, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon will be making a return to The Simpsons. The beloved bullet-magnet Kwik-E-Mart owner, one of the show’s most iconic characters from the golden age of the long-running Fox animated comedy series, is set to be a Springfield regular again as producers cast veteran voice actor Sunil Malhotra in the role.
An Indian-American actor and voice actor, Malhotra has starred in episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, House and Cold Case but is better known for his voice work in video games and animated series. Among his animation voice credits are The Legend of Korra, The Legend of Vox Machina, Monster High, Blaze and the Monster Machines and The Casagrandes. He has also lent his voice to the video games Mortal Kombat: Onslaught, Mortal Kombat 1, Avatar: The Last Airbender – Quest for Balance and The Outer Worlds 2.
Apu made his comeback in the season 38 episode, “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening” that aired on Sunday.
Malhotra takes over the role from Hank Azaria, the legendary Simpsons voice actor who voices many of the show’s characters including Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Professor Frink, Dr. Nick Riviera and Snake Jailbird. Azaria famously decided to stop voicing Apu following controversy over the character in the 2010s, with a growing number of people pointing to the character reinforcing racial stereotypes about South Asians and the problematic nature of a white man voicing Apu.
The long-simmering controversy culiminated in Hari Kondabolu’s one-hour documentary The Problem With Apu in 2017. For his doc, Kondabolu, a comedy writer and standup comedian, spoke to a number of prominent South Asian entertainers, including Aziz Ansari, Aasif Mandvi and Hasan Minhaj about their conflicted feelings about Apu. The film covered both the positive and negative impact of Apu and how it fed into the perception of South Asians in the U.S. and became a topic of discussion on social media.
Apu made his last speaking appearance in The Simpsons in the season 29 episode “The Serfsons,” which aired in October 2017. The show tried to address the outcry over the character in the season 29 episode “No Good Read Goes Unpunished,” where Marge Simpson reads a book to her daughter Lisa that has been changed from its original version to something not so controversial. “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?,” says Lisa as a picture of Apu appears on screen.
Though he hadn’t voiced Apu since 2017, Azaria officially confirmed he had withdrawn himself from the role in February 2020. “Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” Azaria told the New York Times in an interview. “It just didn’t feel right.”
Azaria added, “What happened with this character is a window into an important issue. It’s a good way to start the conversation. I can be accountable and try to make up for it as best I can.”