A new voice on screen

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon spoke on screen again in The Revengening, the third episode of season 38, which aired in the United States on Sunday, 18 October. The Springfield shopkeeper is now voiced by Sunil Malhotra, an India-born, US-raised actor known for The Legend of Korra and The Legend of Vox Machina. He replaces Hank Azaria, who voiced the character for decades. Producers kept the casting under wraps, with non-disclosure agreements in place for the table read. Janina Gavankar, known from The Morning Show, now voices Apu's wife Manjula, and the two actors marked the return with a joint Instagram post. Malhotra wrote the following.

“Bringing Apu back feels like a reclamation. It truly IS his homecoming.”

Why Apu fell silent

Apu's presence on the show shrank after criticism that the character was a stereotype grew louder. In 2017 Indian American comic Hari Kondabolu released the documentary The Problem with Apu, arguing that the character was founded on racial stereotypes. In 2018 an episode addressed the controversy for the first time, but some viewers found it insufficient, while others defended the show and said all its characters were stereotypes. Azaria announced in 2020 that he was stepping down from the role. On the Armchair Expert podcast he said part of him felt he needed to personally apologise to every Indian person in the country. Apu had been seen but not heard since the episode The Serfsons in October 2017.

Behind the casting

Malhotra told Variety that he was hesitant when his agent called about an audition, because he knew the role at once and his stomach sank. He admitted he was also curious, and he asked whether the writers' room looked different now. He wanted to know whether the show could bring the character back in a way that acknowledged and apologised for past mistakes, and whether he could make the role his own. According to the BBC, he spoke with showrunner Matt Selman and co-executive producer Cesar Mazariegos about making the character more culturally appropriate for 2026. Show bosses have said Apu and the Nahasapeemapetilon family will appear more often from now on.

Open questions for other markets

Tobias Lelle voiced Apu in the German version for many episodes, but there is no official announcement that he will be replaced there. Spain is also undecided. Francisco Javier García-Sáenz had been the Spanish voice of the character, and what will happen there is not yet known. La Razón reports that it is unclear whether Apu will remain in the show permanently now that he has a new voice in the United States. After years as a background figure, the character is back with a voice, but the scale of his future role has not been set.