{"id":654889,"date":"2026-10-23T14:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654889\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T14:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:18:10","slug":"the-new-apu-the-ringer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654889\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Apu – The Ringer"},"content":{"rendered":"

TV<\/a>TV<\/a>\u2018The Simpsons\u2019 just brought back its most controversial character\u2014with a new voice. Here\u2019s how the Kwik-E-Mart manager made his return.\"\"Fox\/Ringer illustration\"\"<\/a>By Alan Siegel<\/a>Oct. 23, 12:48 pm UTC \u2022 7 min<\/p>\n

Like countless Indian American kids growing up in the 1980s, Sunil Malhotra rarely saw his culture reflected in movies or on television. And when he did, it wasn\u2019t a pretty\u2014or accurate\u2014picture. As an example, he points to a particularly infamous meal served in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. \u201cI didn\u2019t have monkey brains for dinner,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Malhotra wondered whether maybe things were changing in 1990, when Apu made his first appearance<\/a> on The Simpsons. The immigrant owner of the Kwik-E-Mart was a welcome sight. Malhotra, a huge fan of the animated series, remembers thinking, \u201cOh cool, that\u2019s like my uncle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good feelings didn\u2019t last long. At Malhotra\u2019s high school, some classmates started making fun of him by imitating the character\u2019s stereotypically exaggerated accent. \u201cIt quickly was not cool,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so that was my experience. Apu quickly became a dirty word.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three decades passed before his opinion of Apu shifted again. Malhotra\u2019s an actor<\/a> now. And recently, his agent called to tell him that The Simpsons wanted him to audition. \u201cI totally knew what it was before she even told me the role,\u201d he says. \u201cI knew exactly what it was.\u201d He recalls having two conflicting thoughts:<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God, it\u2019s The Simpsons!\u201d and \u201cHoly shit, it\u2019s The Simpsons \u2026\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a stomach full of acid because so much cultural baggage is attached to Apu and my own negative experience with the character,\u201d Malhotra says. \u201cOf course, I was aware of all the controversy that was going on with the character.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu\u2019s documentary The Problem With Apu explored whether there should still be a place in pop culture for racially insensitive caricatures. A deeply apologetic Hank Azaria, who\u2019s white, announced three years <\/a> that he would stop voicing Apu. By then, the character had been all but written off the show.<\/p>\n

To Malhotra, there was something sad about Apu being relegated to the background. \u201cIt\u2019s not like Apu has left Springfield and moved on to better opportunities in the world,\u201d he says. \u201cHe was still in Springfield, but he was mute.\u201d<\/p>\n

After thinking it over, Malhotra made a decision. He wanted to try to give Apu his voice back.<\/p>\n

Malhotra\u2019s first Simpsons audition led to a callback and a conversation with coexecutive producer Cesar Mazariegos and writer Nick Dahan, who pitched him on an episode about Apu\u2019s return. He loved their idea. He was even offered the gig. But he still wasn\u2019t convinced he should take it.<\/p>\n

So Malhotra asked for a second meeting. It was a bold request for a relatively unknown actor. But he had to know if he and the people who made the show were on the same page about Apu. \u201cI needed to feel good about it,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was important to be like, \u2018I understand that I\u2019m going to sound like Apu, but I don\u2019t want to sound like Hank doing Apu.\u2019And they were fully on board with that.<\/p>\n

Sunil Malhotra<\/p>\n

Sure enough, the producers agreed to sit down with Malhotra. \u201cHe was just a smart dude, a caring dude, and a funny, great actor,\u201d says Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman.<\/p>\n

The meeting put the actor at ease. \u201cThe biggest thing was that they were acknowledging the missteps that the show had made in handling the character, both during Hank\u2019s tenure in the character, in the role, and then even more so after he [stopped voicing him],\u201d Malhotra says. \u201cSo that level of self-awareness was huge.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Azaria had based Apu\u2019s voice on real-life Indian and Pakistani store clerks. He was also inspired by what he saw in The Party, which stars Peter Sellers in brownface. Azaria has said that he didn\u2019t realize what he was doing was offensive. \u201cThat accent trained the ears of generations of people to be like, \u2018That\u2019s what Indian people sound like,\u2019\u201d Malhotra says.<\/p>\n

In 2018, the show clumsily addressed the Apu issue. In a moment<\/a> that alludes to Kondabolu\u2019s documentary, Lisa looks straight into the camera and says, \u201cSomething that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect.\u201d Then she peeks over at a framed Apu photo\u2014that the Hindu man has signed, \u201cDon\u2019t have a cow\u201d\u2014and asks, \u201cWhat can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer wasn\u2019t to make Apu disappear. After all, he\u2019s always been one of Springfield\u2019s smartest, hard-working, caring, and patriotic citizens. As Homer puts it in a terrifyingly prophetic 1996 episode in which Mayor Quimby tries to get the town\u2019s immigrants deported: \u201cYou must love this country more than I love a cold beer on a hot Christmas morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baggage aside, Malhotra wanted to carry on Apu\u2019s legacy. But he knew that some things about the character had to change. Including his voice. His new bosses agreed. \u201cIt was important to be like, \u2018I understand that I\u2019m going to sound like Apu, but I don\u2019t want to sound like Hank doing Apu,\u2019\u201d Malhotra says. \u201cAnd they were fully on board with that.\u201d (Malhotra also said this about Azaria: \u201cHank infused the character with so much humanity, and I have a lot of respect for him. \u2026 I [also] have a lot of respect for him for stepping down, and he did so on his own, fully unsupported. And that was a big level of responsibility he took on for himself.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Malhotra had a very specific idea of what Apu should sound like. \u201cI mean, I\u2019ve done so many characters with some version of an Indian accent. And they\u2019re all modeled after people I know,\u201d he says. \u201c… Yes, he\u2019s Indian. Yes, he has an accent. Yes, he\u2019s a convenience store owner. By the way, all of those things I have no problem with because I grew up with exactly those people. Those are uncles of mine that I know as people, and that represents a large part of the community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Malhotra knows what longtime Simpsons fans have always known: There\u2019s more to Apu than his cultural identity. Just ask Selman. \u201cWe want to tell great stories about a nuanced, flawed, but kind, funny character who\u2019s part of Springfield,\u201d he says. \u201cThe same way we would with Flanders or Moe, who also are some of the big non-family members. Guys with an inner life. They\u2019re not perfect and they\u2019ve had a hard time and they\u2019ve suffered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bringing back Apu wasn\u2019t easy. The show\u2019s producers and writers had talked about it for a few years, but they couldn\u2019t settle on a workable idea. Then Mazariegos and Dahan pitched one that Selman thought was brilliant.<\/p>\n

It was an I Know What You Did Last Summer\u2013inspired murder mystery timed to Halloween. The serial killer was a guy in a brown robe and an electronic helmet. (\u201cI\u2019m Daft Monk,\u201d he angrily explains when no one seems to get his costume.) Late in \u201cTreehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening,\u201d the assailant removes his mask and reveals himself as \u2026 Apu. He goes on a rampage for a reason: \u201cI am the man you left for dead. I am the shame you tried to bury. I am the one you pretended never existed!\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight seasons in, it\u2019s almost impossible for The Simpsons to shock its audience. But Selman figured Apu\u2019s return might do the trick. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to surprise people these days,\u201d Selman says. \u201cAnd yet surprise is one of the greatest tools in the writer\u2019s toolbox. So if you can try to hit some people with stuff they really don\u2019t know is coming, yet when it does come, it feels right\u2014that\u2019s a big deal. All the creative credit goes to Cesar and Nick. I just sort of didn\u2019t chicken out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was a big secret. Big enough that Selman says that the Simpsons staff consulted with Marvel Studios\u2019 security team about how to keep it under wraps. \u201cIt could have gotten out a million ways. I mean, a million animators saw this and worked on it. \u2026 The fact that one person who wasn\u2019t quite thinking the right way didn\u2019t accidentally blow it is kind of stunning.\u201d Even after the table read\u2014that happened before Malhotra was officially on board\u2014there were no leaks.<\/p>\n

The secret survived more than a year. Then last Sunday afternoon, Selman, Mazariegos, and Dahan attended a \u201cTreehouse of Horror\u201d<\/a> tribute at Vidiots, a beloved movie house and video store in Los Angeles. At the the trio surprised the crowd with a screening of the new Simpsons episode Fox was about to air on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

After a few minutes of panic\u2014the theater\u2019s projector overheated and had to be rebooted\u2014the opening credits rolled. \u201cOur hearts were pounding,\u201d Selman says. When Apu popped up on the big screen, the audience exploded. The timing, Selman says, was finally right. \u201cYou just felt that this is a beloved character and let\u2019s just evolve him a bit and people will be happy. And that\u2019s what kind of happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the climax of \u201cThe Revengening,\u201d Apu describes how he got stranded for eight seasons on \u201cThe Island of Forgotten Garbage,\u201d where \u201call the junk Springfield gets rid of winds up.\u201d That includes Mr. Plow\u2019s jacket, a Springfield monorail car, and Dr. Nick Riviera\u2014who\u2019s now voiced by Eric Lopez. Dr. Nick eventually helps Apu heal. Then he\u00a0 makes it back to Springfield, which proceeds to ignore him. \u201cIf it\u2019s any consolation, we had so many internal conversations about it,\u201d Lenny says, speaking for the show. In the end, Homer prepares to sacrifice himself to a vengeful Apu for the town\u2019s sake and says, \u201cI\u2019m just doing what the old Apu would\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon, the whole thing is revealed to be Apu\u2019s daydream. And all of a sudden we\u2019re inside the Kwik-E-Mart. Apu\u2019s wife Manjula, who\u2019s now played by Janina Gavankar, even shows up with their octuplets.<\/p>\n

That evening, Malhotra had friends over to watch the episode. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know what was coming,\u201d he says. \u201c… And then the second Apu is revealed, it was absolute pandemonium.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, Malhotra has heard from South Asians who live around the world. They all seem to be excited to get back into The Simpsons. \u201cApu isn\u2019t a dirty word anymore,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a reclamation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Alan Siegel<\/p>\n

<\/a>Alan covers a mix of movies, music, TV, and general nostalgia. He lives in Los Angeles and is the author of \u2018Stupid TV, Be More Funny:
\nHow the Golden Era of \u201cThe Simpsons\u201d Changed Television\u2014and America\u2014Forever.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TVTV\u2018The Simpsons\u2019 just brought back its most controversial character\u2014with a new voice. Here\u2019s how the Kwik-E-Mart manager made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-654889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}