Why Big Bang Theory star Kunal Nayyar was fired and then rehired

Popular sitcoms don’t earn that moniker by having disappointing or unlikable casts — and obviously the five original leads of The Big Bang Theory helped catapult Chuck Lorre’s CBS comedy to incredible success. However, according to an oral history of the series, Kunal Nayyar, who played Raj Koothrappalli throughout the show, was essentially fired by network executives before filming began … and Lorre had to step in for the actor.

In Jessica Radloff’s “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” Lorre recalls flying from Los Angeles to New York for upfronts only to find that Nayyar was nowhere to be found. At that point, Lorre says, a CBS executive decided in the middle of his cross-country flight that Nayyar just wasn’t the right choice and that they would find someone else to play Raj.

“Well, I didn’t react well,” Lorre said. “I was angry. They made this decision without consulting me. (…) I called the executives at CBS and said, ‘You can’t fire him. I cast him. I believe in him, I take responsibility for this decision. He’s my man.’ If I’m going to fail, I’m going to fail because of my own decisions. I’m not going to fail because of other people’s decisions. I didn’t want to recast that role because someone else have made a decision.”

Johnny Galecki, who also spoke to Jessica Radloff for the book, said the whole mood at the upfronts was thrown off by Kunal Nayyar’s absence and the apparent controversy over his potential replacement. “It felt very strange to be missing a cast member at the upfronts,” Galecki recalled, speaking for fellow cast members Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco and Simon Helberg. “We all felt terribly uncomfortable and frustrated and helpless because we didn’t know what this meant for the show. But most of all, we really felt for Kunal.”

Chuck Lorre reached out to a “distraught” Nayyar and assured him that he was still part of “The Big Bang Theory” — and recalled saying he felt responsible for the circumstances that led to CBS asking for a new Raj Koothrappalli. “I told him not to worry, we would get it done,” Lorre said of his conversation with Nayyar, before admitting that he and the show’s creative team struggled with Raj’s character. “We had a better handle on Sheldon, Leonard and Wolowitz, and if anything, Kunal wasn’t suffering from his own inabilities, he was suffering from ours. We needed to discover his character. And we did. Beyond our wildest dreams. He became a great, wonderful voice of the ensemble. You can’t imagine the show without him.”

Kunal Nayyar himself was devastated when he thought he might lose “The Big Bang Theory,” but he was reassured that Chuck Lorre had his back. In the end, it all worked out. As Nayyar told Jessica Radloff, he doesn’t know exactly what Lorre did, but in late June 2007, he was preparing to move house when his agent called and said he was officially a part of “The Big Bang Theory” – which set off a wave of emotions. “And I remember falling to my knees in my apartment and crying. Just weeping. Because almost 45 days of uncertainty had passed. And that is a very difficult situation.”

“Looking back, it’s nothing personal,” Nayyar said of the whole situation. Time and distance have clearly given him a more serious perspective on the whole ordeal. He’s also grateful that someone as experienced and respected as Lorre had his back during a stressful time: “I was a young newlywed. I had no experience with the prospect of a network investing whatever they would invest in a project. They only knew me from that one audition. Would you give me a chance? For me, it was just another thing I had to prove. But Chuck fought for me. He believed in me.”

Okay, yes – in a broader sense, the role of Raj Koothrappalli in “The Big Bang Theory” it’s worth it for Kunal Nayyar, who made a lot of money for the role (he’s probably still raking in money in syndication, considering TBS is basically “The Big Bang Theory Channel” for anyone who still has cable). Let’s look at Raj – because despite Chuck Lorre’s insistence that they’ve “figured out” what to do with the character, it’s not always feel I like it. At the start of the series, Raj is just one of the four main nerds, but he has the strangest and most disturbing quirk of all: he is selectively mute and can only speak to members of the opposite sex when he is extremely drunk. This trait fluctuates throughout the series – he is able to open his mouth and say something in the presence of Kaley Cuoco’s Penny at one point, for example – but it’s a really unpleasant trait.

And then there’s Raj’s ending. While everyone else ends The Big Bang Theory married, having kids, expecting kids, or winning Nobel Prizes, Raj’s story just ends… He’s single despite being the show’s hopeless romantic, and his solo ending is more for laughs than anything else. Raj and Nayyar both deserved better from the show, but it doesn’t seem like the actor holds any grudges over it.

“The Big Bang Theory” is now streaming on Max.