Apu speaks again on The Simpsons after nine years, now voiced by Sunil Malhotra

Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, the owner of the Kwik-E-Mart, is talking again on The Simpsons. The character returned in the episode that aired Sunday, October 18, on Fox, with a new voice: Indian-American actor Sunil Malhotra, a voice-over veteran of The Legend of Korra, The Legend of Vox Machina and Mortal Kombat 1. Apu's wife, Manjula, was recast as well and is now voiced by Janina Gavankar of The Morning Show. Variety broke the news, and TheWrap and Nerdist confirmed it.

It was Apu's first speaking appearance since October 2017's “The Serfsons.” Since then, he had only shown up silently in the background.

How the comeback played out

The episode, the third of season 38, is titled “Treehouse of Horror Presents: The Revengening” and leads into next week's Halloween special. In it, a man dressed as a “Daft Monk,” a Daft Punk helmet with a monk's robe, is accidentally killed over and over by Springfield's residents. A year later he returns for revenge and unmasks at City Hall: it is Apu. The script leans into the subject, with Lenny apologizing by saying they “had so many internal conversations about it.” In the end it was all a nightmare, and Apu wakes up back at the Kwik-E-Mart with Manjula.

Selman said Apu, Manjula and the Nahasapeemapetilon family will be seen and heard more often going forward. Malhotra told Variety that when his agent called about the audition, “the idea actually made my stomach sink,” and that he was prepared to walk away. In a joint Instagram post with Gavankar, quoted by TheWrap, he called the return “a reclamation.”

Why Apu went quiet

Hank Azaria, who is white, voiced Apu from 1990. In 2017, comedian Hari Kondabolu's documentary The Problem with Apu examined the character as a South Asian stereotype. Azaria announced in 2020 that he would stop voicing Apu, and in 2021 he publicly apologized for his part in creating the stereotype. Also in 2020, the show said characters of color would be voiced by actors from the same background.

In the US, new episodes air Sundays on Fox. Outside the US, The Simpsons streams on Disney+ in most markets, but no date has been given for season 38 there.