ISLAMABAD – The Simpsons faced a bit of a reckoning last year, when it came under fire for white actors voicing diverse characters, including Hank Azaria voicing the stereotypical Indian character Apu, who owned and ran the Kwik-E Mart.While the show addressed the controversy by announcing they would no longer have white actors voice non-white roles, series creator Matt Groening said in an interview that he’s still ‘proud’ of what they did with Apu. The show celebrates its milestone 700th episode recently, with the new episode Manger Things, a Christmas flashback episode.The Apu Nahasapeemapetilon character has not been seen on the show since the casting controversy, but Groening insists he has not been forgotten.
’We’ve got plans for Apu, but we have to see if we can make the stories work,’ Groening said in the interview.Aside from a white actor voicing an Indian character, Apu has been criticized for perpetuating stereotypes, though Groening doesn’t see it that way.
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