Apu Nahasapeemapetilon - Character

Character

Apu first appeared in the season one episode "The Telltale Head". While creating the character, the writers decided they would not make him ethnic. They felt it would be too offensive and stereotypical and did not want to offend viewers. However, at a table read for an episode, Hank Azaria's reading of the line "Hello, Mr. Homer" received a huge laugh from the writers, so the concept stayed. Azaria took Apu's voice from the many Indian convenience store workers in Los Angeles whom he had interacted with when he first moved to the area. He also loosely based it on Peter Sellers' character Hrundi V. Bakshi from the film The Party, whom Azaria thinks has a similar personality to Apu. Apu's first name is an homage to the main character in The Apu Trilogy directed by Satyajit Ray. His surname is Nahasapeemapetilon, and it was first used in the episode "A Streetcar Named Marge". It is a morphophonological blend of the name Pahasadee Napetilon, the full name of a schoolmate of Simpsons writer Jeff Martin. In the season seven episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" it is revealed that Apu is vegan.

Apu married Manjula in the episode "The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons". Rich Appel first constructed the idea for Apu's marriage. Andrea Martin provided the voice of Apu's mother in the episode, recording her part in New York. She wanted to get the voice perfect, so in between takes she listened to tapes of Hank Azaria reading lines for Apu, to make sure her voice could realistically be Apu's mother's.