Rajesh Koothrappali - Creation and Casting

Creation and Casting

Raj did not appear in the original, unaired pilot of the series, where only Sheldon, Leonard, and a different version of the Penny character, called Katie, were present. The test audiences reacted negatively to Katie, but liked Sheldon and Leonard. In the new pilot, Raj and Howard were added. Series co-creator Bill Prady stated: "The idea was, if they like these first two guys, let’s give them two more". Rajesh's social anxiety around women was inspired by a former co-worker of Prady. Originally the character was called "Dave", and was an American born to Indian parents. This was changed when Nayyar won the role, because he was "so Indian".

Read more about this topic:  Rajesh Koothrappali

Famous quotes containing the words creation and/or casting:

    Poetry, at all times, exercises two distinct functions: it may reveal, it may unveil to every eye, the ideal aspects of common things ... or it may actually add to the number of motives poetic and uncommon in themselves, by the imaginative creation of things that are ideal from their very birth.
    Walter Pater (1839–1894)

    All we know
    Is that we are a little early, that
    Today has that special, lapidary
    Todayness that the sunlight reproduces
    Faithfully in casting twig-shadows on blithe
    Sidewalks. No previous day would have been like this.
    John Ashbery (b. 1927)