TruTV Greenlights Feature-Length Documentary and Pilot From Hari Kondabolu

By Sameer Rao May 11, 2016

TruTV just approved a new feature-length documentary and television series pilot from comedian Hari Kondabolu.

Deadline announced the upcoming programs yesterday (May 10) alongside a fleet of other comedy specials, pilots and series orders. The documentary, operating under the working title "The Problem with Apu," will focus on "Apu Nahasapeemapetilon," the controversial Indian convenience store owner from "The Simpsons."

Per Deadline: "Through this comedic cultural exposé, Kondabolu questions how this controversial caricature was created, burrowed its way into the the hearts and minds of Americans and continues to exist–intact–twenty-six years later."

The documentary will premiere this fall. And Kondabolu, who famously created #BobbyJindalIsSoWhite, will also helm a still-untitled pilot for a recurring comedy series. 

Kondabolu, a former immigrant rights organizer, previously wrote for FX’s "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell." He criticized Apu in one of the show’s segments about South Asians in Western media, which you can see below.