Line #12 Main/BollywoodNerd


1	%%
2	%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1657259969010302600
3	%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
4	%%
5	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/PyaarImpossible https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bn.png]]]]
6	%%
7	->''"I'm an Indian American, Jon. We're all born with a certain level of graduate school medical training."''
8	-->-- '''Creator/AasifMandvi''', ''Series/TheDailyShow''
9
10	People from India portrayed as various forms of geeks and nerds, although almost always on the smart end.
11
12	As far as Indian characters go, we really only know a few things: One, they have funny accents. Two, they drive cabs and [[AsianStoreOwner run convenience stores]]. Yeah, those ain't gonna fly anymore. Three, Indians are so intelligent, they are the source of many white collar job outsourcings as well as stereotyped as doctors. So, obviously, all Indians must be geniuses. And therefore, nerds.
13
14	Note that the Bollywood Nerd is much less pronounced in nerdiness than other character types because of where the stereotype comes from -- they're intelligent because they're stealing jobs from hard-working Americans. As is such, it doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense to show them as being lazy. Your typical Bollywood Nerd will be a scientist, doctor, or just plain normal guy who has an IQ of 153. In other words, what your mom wishes you were instead of [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife wasting your time]] on this website.
15
16	This perception traces back to a 1965 U.S. immigration law that preferences education and skills in individuals who receive visas, and the fact that large-scale Indian immigration to the U.S. began afterward, so the people who founded the Indian American population were unusually well-educated. According to the 2000 census Indian Americans have the highest educational qualifications of all national origin groups in the USA with about two thirds of Indian Americans having attained a Bachelor's degree or more. Around two fifths of all Indian Americans have a master's, doctorate or other professional degree, which is five times the national average. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Indian American men had "the highest year-round, full-time median earnings".
17
18	This trope is not as common in Great Britain, where a higher percentage of the population is of South Asian ancestry. However, it did exist to some extent in colonial India, where the British were fond of stereotyping the different ethnicities on the subcontinent. There were some exceptions, but in general Punjabis (from northwestern India and UsefulNotes/{{Pakistan}}) were seen as tough and brave and were popular choices for [[UsefulNotes/KiplingsFinest sepoy troops]], while Bengalis (from northeastern India and Bangladesh) were supposedly weak and cowardly intellectuals. In a nutshell, Punjabis = jocks, Bengalis = nerds. This was an egregiously odd racial profile to give them given that the sons of prominent Bengali warrior families constituted more than half the entire British East India Company's mercenary force -- indeed, the move to reduce Bengali recruitment and diversify the force was a major contributing factor to the 1857 mercenary rebellion which resulted in the company's dissolution -- but then again racial profiling is by definition neither a logically-consistent discipline nor one founded in reality.
19
20	Note that actual UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} films rarely use this character type. That's because ([[SarcasmMode Get this]]) [[CaptainObvious Indians are pretty common]] [[ShapedLikeItself over in India]], so they don't have any trouble giving them diverse roles. Also, Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible, so while people from the country of India are the most common examples, the trope can also apply to Pakistanis, UsefulNotes/{{Bangladesh}}is, and occasionally even people from the smaller South Asian countries of UsefulNotes/SriLanka, UsefulNotes/{{Nepal}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Bhutan}}.
21
22	A subtrope of AsianAndNerdy. Compare BlackAndNerdy, JewishAndNerdy, and {{Geek}}.
23
24	----
25	!!Examples:
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
28	* Dr. Rakshata Chawla from ''Anime/CodeGeass'', a {{Bunny Ears\|Lawyer}} scientist. Also, most of China's [[HumongousMecha Knightmare Frames]] are implied to have been designed by Indian engineers.
29	* Kaolla Su from ''Manga/LoveHina'' is a mechanical genius who hails from Molmol, a Pacific island kingdom that really resembles India (and everyone thought she was Indian before).
30	* In ''Anime/HappinessChargePrettyCure'', the Pretty Cure team from India has a technology and computer theme to their powers, and they are called the Wonderful Net Pretty Cure. They also both have glasses in their Cure forms, to add to the typical "brainy nerd" image.
31	* In ''Anime/JewelpetTwinkle'', Sara is the class genius and spends a lot of time inventing new magic spells. According to a piece of AllThereInTheManual info, she's of mixed Indian-Japanese heritage.
32	* Luna Khan from ''Manga/BootyRoyaleNeverGoDownWithoutAFight'' is a high-ranking executive at an IT company. She also happens to be an incredibly graceful and skilled master of the ancient martial art kalaripayattu. Her computer skills aren't as prominent as her fighting skills anyway.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''ComicBook/LevelUp'': Ipsha, one of Dennis's friends who is also studying gastroenterology. Apparently it's her family's tradition.
37	* ''ComicBook/MsMarvel'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsKamalaKhan Kamala Khan]] from ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2014''. She's Pakistani rather than Indian, but she probably still counts. She is a huge superhero nerd, having intricate knowledge of her universe's superheroes, and she is a keen MMORPG player and fanfic writer. Downplayed, though, because, while she is fairly intelligent, her best friend Bruno (as well as his girlfriend, Mike) are smarter and fulfill the role of TheSmartGuy in her solo series.
38	* ''ComicBook/{{The Outsiders\|DCComics}}'': Salah Miandad/REMAC from ''ComicBook/BatmanAndTheOutsiders2007'', who is probably Pakistani but fulfills this role as the tech expert and robotics engineer.
39	* ''ComicBook/SunnySeries'': Sunny's friend Arun Patel is South Asian, plays D&D with her, and eventually starts the school's debate team with her. In ''Sunny Makes Her Case'' he complains that the school focuses heavily on sports, and gets teased in gym class for not catching a football where Sunny sees it while running track.
40	* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Dr. Kavita Rao, who first appeared after having developed a serum that could cure the ''Homo superior'' mutations, and later joined them as part of the X-Club, a think tank assembled by Beast in order to try and reverse the effects of the [[ComicBook/HouseOfM Decimation]].
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
44	* Asok from ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' is so smart and his school is so good that they taught how to use PsychicPowers, which the great Indian hierarchy may remove from him if he abuses them too much. The dullness of his job strains his ultra-powerful brain into near bouts of madness, and when he did break the rules with his powers in order to save the day, he was sentenced to go back to his cubicle at the office. In ''Seven Years of Highly Defective People'', Scott Adams admitted that he wrote Asok the way he did because he didn't think he could get away with making a minority as moronic as the rest of the cast. In a 2003 strip, [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3231561.stm Asok revealed that he attended the Indian Institute of Technology]], which is consistently ranked as the best in India and which got some nice American publicity thanks to the comic - though while you have to be ''real'' smart to get through there, [[CaptainObvious the real I.I.T. doesn't actually teach its students how to use psychic abilities]].
45	* Andy, a one-shot ''ComicStrip/{{Curtis}}'' character spotted by ''Blog/TheComicsCurmudgeon'' [[http://joshreads.com/?p=1619 here.]]
46	[[/folder]]
47
48	[[folder:Fanworks]]
49	* This is a common AnthropomorphicPersonification for Twilight from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. Some artists have her as AmbiguouslyBrown while others headcanon her human version as Indian.
50	* Twilight Sparkle from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' is reimagined as one in ''Blog/AskTheManeSix''.
51	[[/folder]]
52
53	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
54	* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', while Priya is not explicitly shown as particularly nerdy aside from being a bookworm, she is perceived by Ming as being at least bright enough to hold her own in a mathletes competition alongside Mei who is a straight-A student.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
58	* Ben in ''Film/ShortCircuit'' was a computer scientist Indian guy (even though he was [[{{Brownface}} portrayed by a non-Indian actor,]] Creator/FisherStevens). [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in one scene:
59	-->'''Newton''': Where are you from, anyway?\
60	'''Ben''': Bakersfield, originally.\
61	'''Newton''': No, I mean your ancestors.\
62	'''Ben''': Oh, them. Pittsburgh.
63	* ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle'': Kumar was actively trying to defy this trope. Even though he was highly intelligent and had a natural talent for medicine, to the point where he was able to perform a surgery despite not having a medical license, he didn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Bollywood Nerd, so he dropped out of med school, sabotaged various med school interviews and spent his time getting stoned. Then he realised that being a doctor would actually be pretty cool.
64	* In ''Film/MeanGirls'', the captain of the mathletes team is Kevin Gnapoor, who is incredibly competitive about the academic competition, as well as being a (bad) amateur rapper.
65	* In the live action movie adaptation of ''Film/StreetFighter'', Dhalsim works for Bison as a scientist, and is responsible for running (and ruining) his experiments.
66	* Dileep Rao seems to be the go-to guy to play this kind of role in Hollywood, as evidenced by his roles in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' and ''Film/{{Inception}}''. He's also one in real life, as he is a former winner on ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' prior to his acting career.
67	* Jimi Mistry plays one in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve''.
68	* Real-life Bollywood nerd Divya Narendra was portrayed by [[{{Brownface}} British actor]] Max Minghella (who is of Chinese, British, and Italian descent), in the film ''Film/TheSocialNetwork''.
69	* Arnau in ''Film/SafetyNotGuaranteed''
70	* The Creator/DannyPudi vehicle ''Film/TheTigerHunter'' is about an Indian engineer who moves to Chicago to find work. He ends up living with 13 other Desi immigrants who are all unemployed engineers. While not stereotypical nerds, they are all skilled at engineering and are far more nerdy than the white engineers who dominate the protagonist's workforce, who are all bros mostly concerned with baseball and drinking.
71	* ''Film/EscapeRoom2019'': Danny is Indian and a dorky escape room enthusiast who the other cast members mock for his presumed lack of success with the opposite sex.
72	[[/folder]]
73
74	[[folder:Literature]]
75	* The entire family in ''Literature/AnandasFall'', including a math professor grandpa, political science professor grandma, physicist mom, neurologist dad, and son who is clearly highly gifted.
76	* Rahul from ''Literature/TheBestAtIt'', who's great at math and numbers though he wants to hide this part of himself to not appear as a "typical" Indian.
77	* Anji Kapoor, from the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse. She's a futures trader and damn good at it, watches documentaries about economics for fun, and occasionally reads Creator/JaneAusten, although, like many examples of this trope, she's not actually geeky (her boyfriend Dave is massively into a strangely familiar sci-fi series, and she just doesn't see the point). Also, she was the first recurring ''Series/DoctorWho'' character of Asian descent, though Rani from the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}} series ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'', Toshiko from ''{{Series/Torchwood}}'', and Yaz in the main TV series have appeared subsequently.
78	* ''Literature/HowOpalMehtaGotKissedGotWildAndGotALife'' plays with this; Opal is Indian-American (born in India, lived in New Jersey since she was five), who has grown up aspiring to enter Harvard University and dedicating her entire life to achieving this. She has a 4.0 GPA, was her class' valedictorian and has won various academic awards. She's also very socially-awkward, unfashionable, knows little about popular culture, and has no real interests outside of studying. She believes women can be either smart or pretty, and has resigned herself to the former. When Opal is told by the Harvard admissions office that her lack of interesting traits outside of academia is hampering her acceptance, she becomes determined to shed her nerdiness and become 'cool'.
79	* Doctor Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai (also known as Dr. Chandra) from ''[[Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact 2010: Odyssey Two]]'' is a [[UnbuiltTrope proto]]-Bollywood Nerd; he's Indian ''and'' a computer programmer, but he doesn't have the usual nerdy character traits because the trope hadn't crystallized in American media by 1982.
80	* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' briefly mentions a "calculus whiz" named Raj Mandali, who got picked on a lot.
81	[[/folder]]
82
83	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
84	* Dr. Mohinder Suresh from ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. Now, granted, he and his father were both college professors, so it makes sense for them to be smart. But like AsianAndNerdy Hiro, the implications of this are pretty difficult to ignore when he's pretty much the only Indian in the series. (''And'' he's a cab driver!)
85	* On ''Series/TheDailyShow'', Creator/AasifMandvi once insisted that Jon Stewart introduce him as "Dr. Aasif Mandvi"; claiming: "I'm an Indian American, Jon. We're all born with a certain level of graduate school medical training."
86	* A possible UrExample occurs in The "Fair Exchange" episode of ''Series/FatherKnowsBest'', starring Puerto Rican-American actress Creator/RitaMoreno as Indian college exchange student Chanthini Rajkamuri, with the Andersons learning about India, and Chanthini, who is learning about America from the Andersons while hoping to make a favorable impression. Bud is initially embarrassed when he has a ribbon bracelet tied on his wrist in honor of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raksha_Bandhan Raksha Bandhan]], where a sister puts a bracelet on one she considers to be her brother (by association in this case). Jim hopes to take Chanthini to see an American football game while visiting the U.S.A., with Bud deciding to get her some perfume as a homewarming gift, and the rest of the family misinterprets Bud showing her around town as bringing her back to college, only to discover that Bud is helping her to get better acquainted with American football, and Chanthini feels more eager to see the football game now that she knows more about the sport.
87	* Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali from ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. At least he's surrounded by other nerds, but is often the ChewToy of the group. On the other hand, women do seem to find him attractive.
88	* Subverted in season 8 of ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' with new intern Ed. He's [[BrilliantButLazy smart, but is ridiculously lazy]] and trendy, [[spoiler:but because he doesn't take being a doctor seriously he gets fired.]]
89	* Subverted by the Indian-American Tom on ''Series/{{Parks and Recreation}}'', who is intelligent yet underachieving.
90	* Jawaharlal on ''Series/HeadOfTheClass'' is a surprisingly early example. So early probably that the writers weren't so much deliberately associating India with intelligence so much as needing him to round out a FiveTokenBand of kids who were all nerds anyway.
91	* Averted by [[CasanovaWannabe Lester Patel]] in ''Series/{{Chuck}}''. He knows enough about computers to scrape by working in the [[BlandNameProduct Buy More Nerd Herd]], but when the only person below you on the Buy More totem pole is [[TheAlcoholic Jeff]] [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Barnes]], you're not exactly a genius.
92	* Zigzagged by Kutner from ''Series/{{House}}''. He's a doctor whose interests include ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Literature/HarryPotter'', ''Franchise/StarTrek'', etc. Thirteen describes his apartment as "man-boy heaven". During high school, however, he was a bully.
93	* Dr. Mahesh Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy aka "Bug" from ''Series/CrossingJordan''
94	* Ranjid from the German SketchComedy show ''Series/WasGuckstDu''. More of a subversion -- while being the best known (if not the only) fictional Indian on German TV, he's more of a dork, and not very bright.
95	%%* Dr Nayak from ''Series/{{Fringe}}''. [[spoiler:A rare villainous example. Okay, anti-villainous example.]]
96	* Dr. Mindy Lahiri from ''Series/TheMindyProject'' zigzags this in a rare female example. She's an OB/GYN who is very very good at her job, makes nerdy pop-culture references, and is implied to have gotten excellent grades in school. However, she also obsessed with shopping and fashion as well as celebrity culture, and is a bit boy-crazy.
97	%%* Tammy from ''Series/IAmFrankie'' is both this ''and'' the AlphaBitch!
98	* Ravi Ross in ''Series/{{Jessie}}'' was adopted from India and is the smartest out of the kids. As the show went on, he also gained a number of stereotypical nerd traits, like a lack of strength and popularity.
99	* Amita in ''Series/Numb3rs'', who is of Indian descent and a computer genius.
100	* ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'':
101	** The protagonist, Devi, is an awkward, unpopular, and overachieving high schooler of Tamil Indian descent who wants to go to Princeton. That California-based Indian-Americans are highly educated is part of the setting; in one episode, Devi speaks to a white college admissions counselor who tells her that smart Indian kids who could go to Ivy League schools are dime-a-dozen and she will have to do something that will make her stand out.
102	** The specific stereotype of Indian guys being awkward and unattractive is challenged with both Prashant and Des. Both times Devi assumes that they'll be ugly and lame nerds upon learning they're in STEM (Prashant is an engineer and Des wants to be a marine biologist) and is taken aback when they turn out to be handsome and charming in addition to being intelligent.
103	* ''Series/Sense8'': Though all the people in the main characters' psychic cluster bring their own skills to the table, Mumbai-based pharmacist Kala is the most scientifically inclined, being a chemistry whiz who can [=MacGuyver=] a bomb out of household supplies.
104	* ''Series/APBio'': Sarika is, judging from her name, of Indian descent and is an AcademicAlphaBitch. Subverted with her mom, who, despite possessing the accent most commonly associated with the stereotype, is actually a lax party girl who is just as annoyed by her daughter's obsession with academics as everyone else is.
105	[[/folder]]
106
107	[[folder:Radio]]
108	* Invoked by Sindhu Vee on series 20 episode 5 of ''Radio/TheUnbelievableTruth'', when she makes an incorrect challenge because she didn't realize a three-figure number wasn't prime. She jokes that she's the only Indian who's bad at maths and her parents would be disappointed.
109	[[/folder]]
110
111	[[folder:Video Games]]
112	* Pravin Lal of ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'' was a talented enough doctor to be made chief medical officer on the colony ship sent to Alpha Centauri, and leads the UN Peacekeeping Forces on Planet.
113	* The {{Backstory}} of the 'Bloody Bay' [[PlayerVersusPlayer PVP]] zone in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' involves an Indian scientist, who named the PlanetEater creature approaching Earth 'Shiva', as the destroyer of worlds. The rest [[ItMakesSenseInContext really only makes sense in context]].
114	* ''VideoGame/HogwartsLegacy'' has the British Indian Amit Thakkar, a {{bookworm}} and astronomy nerd who's a member of the eponymous WizardingSchool's scholarly [[BoardingSchool Ravenclaw house]].
115	* Although he isn't shown directly, the head Human researcher in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' has an Indian accent.
116	* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' has Symmetra, an Indian scientist who became a prodigy in the use of {{hard light}} constructs and several of her emotes or highlight intros are her doing dances based on mythological aspects.
117	* ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}:'' ActionGirl Chloe Frazer, first introduced in ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'', initially was an AmbiguouslyBrown AwesomeAussie. In her main game, ''VideoGame/UnchartedTheLostLegacy'', she's identified as half Indian, and she knows a lot about ancient civilizations thanks to her archaeologist father. ''The Lost Legacy'' also has another Bollywood Nerd of the evil variety, BigBad Asav. Asav is a former doctor turned terrorist bent on starting a civil war in order to reinstate the ancient Hoysala Empire, from which he claims descent. Apart from being just as intelligent as Chloe, he's also a GeniusBruiser.
118	[[/folder]]
119
120	[[folder:Web Animation]]
121	* ''WebAnimation/{{PWA}}'': India is often portrayed as a tech genius.
122	** The Weather Machine in ''Countries Compare Weather'' is one of his inventions. The other countryballs fiddle with it, much to his dismay.
123	** In ''Countries Scaled by Gun Ownership'', when being asked by Australia about his gun usage, India replies with "there's more than one way to troubleshoot a computer". Cut to him pointing a gun to a computer after it crashed.
124	** ''Careers Day'' has him offer a job for the AuthorAvatar as a tech entrepreneur, where PWA-ball was tasked to imagine of something that hasn't been invented yet, and invent said object. This confuses PWA-ball, who moves on to the next country.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Web Originals]]
128	* Subverted with Zaboo of ''WebVideo/TheGuild''. He has the intelligence and computer savvy but not the work ethic.
129	* Make, Overclock's Indian pal, in the Literature/WhateleyUniverse. The two of them are still just two more devisors in a SuperheroSchool of about 600 kids.
130	** Mrs. Metal (Tejal Choudhari), the metalworking and fabrication professor, and a BadassDriver known for creating 'speed courses' across the campus lawns.
131	** Silver (Sakti Chandrasekhar) wants to be a mechanical engineer, and Kaiju (Sadhira Patel) is an electronics prodigy (from natural talent, not due to mutant powers). Unfortunately for them, their powers didn't cooperate; Silver's ability to produce {{Mithril}} meant she needed to study magic (if only to protect herself from those who would [[SuperhumanTrafficking exploit her]]), while the side effects of Kaiju's manifested quasi-saurian PK shell is turning her into a CuteMonsterGirl.
132	** Pahelee (Revekah Chatterjee), the [[MadScientist Devisor]]/[[SuperStrength Exemplar]] on 'Team Awesome!', the scourges of the school's powers testing faculty. As with her teammates (all of whom are under eleven), she is both exceptionally powerful and all too willing to throw hands with the older school bullies.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Western Animation]]
136	* Hadji in ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'': In the original series at least, he always knew much more than Jonny. Given the time of the show's production, this was probably done to make his relationship to Jonny [[BrainsAndBrawn more interesting]]. In ''[[WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures The Real Adventures]]'', they made him the MissionControl computer expert.
137	** HilariousInHindsight. Hadji was created long before India gained a reputation for this. Specifically, he's the lost prince of Bangalore, India's current tech hub.
138	* ''WesternAnimation/SallyBollywood'', a 12-year old junior detective of Indian descent; whenever someone (usually a classmate) comes to them with a perplexing case, she and Doowee are ready to use their crime-solving skills to get to the heart of a mystery.
139	* WesternAnimation/SanjayAndCraig: Vijay, Sanjay's father, a part-time inventor who runs a discount store, and is overjoyed when the titular duo want to take a trip to Vijay's ancestral land of India, even if it is mostly to see their hero Remington Tufflips shoot a movie on location. In the series finale, after accepting how his homeland has changed, he still treasures the family bonding moments he got to spend with his family.
140	* Apu in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is a computer science graduate, first in his class of seven million people. He originally went to the United States to study science under a student visa. In spite of his high intelligence, though, he works at a [[AsianStoreOwner Kwik-E-Mart]], and has eight children.[[note]]He works at the Kwik-E-Mart purely because he loves the job (and the authority over the customers it gives him) and the power over others it gives him, and the eight children came about because his [[ArrangedMarriage wife]] was [[NiceJobBreakingItHero irresponsibly given fertility drugs]] by the well-intentioned Simpson family and by Apu, as well as taking them herself when she and Apu were [[LawOfInverseFertility trying desperately to conceive one child]].[[/note]]
141	* Isaac Sumdac from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated''. The strange thing is that he apparently grew up on a farm in rural Michigan, yet still speaks with a Bombay accent. While the Detroit Indian expat community is one of the biggest in the world, it doesn't extend quite all the way to Bad Axe yet (Animated ''is'' set in the 22nd century).
142	* Baljeet from ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' is a prepubescent Bollywood Nerd, and even gets his own UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO5mSAXIzKQ&feature=related musical number]] about it in "The Unfair Science Fair".
143	* {{Downplayed}} on ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama''. WordOfGod says that [[TeenGenius Noah]] is Indian, but he's AmbiguouslyBrown without any of the usual stereotypical cues. While something of an InsufferableGenius, he's also BrilliantButLazy and more prone to [[DeadpanSnarker sarcastic quips]] than typical nerdy clichés.
144	** Dave from ''Pahkitew Island'' qualifies as well. He's pretty much an uptight nerd who's apparently Indian and serves as the voice of reason for his team.
145	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaPresentsTheRidonculousRace'' gives us Ellody. She's confirmed by WordOfGod to be Indian, and she's a highly intelligent university student who wears NerdGlasses, knows a lot about science, speaks in SpockSpeak, and is so concerned with planning out everything that it ends up being her greatest flaw.
146	* Scaredy Bat from ''WesternAnimation/RubyGloom'' has the accent and mannerisms down, despite being well, a ''[[TalkingAnimal Bat]]''.
147	* Downplayed with [[Characters/StevenUniverseConnieMaheswaran Connie Maheswaran]] on ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', who doesn't fit too many nerd tropes despite her intelligence. Even though she does display several "geeky" qualities towards anime and books, as well as practicing the violin and playing tennis, she soon becomes a skilled sword fighter and Steven's love interest. Her mother's a doctor, too!
148	* Subverted with Dr. Vindaloo from ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'', an incompetent "M.D. Quack" with a tendency to mistake blatantly obvious problems for diseases they clearly aren't.
149	* Slav from ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' qualifies as an alien equivalent, with his exaggerated Indian accent. Albeit, he's a downplayed example, as he mostly fits into the "intelligent" category, being a super-genius inventor in spite of all his quirks.
150	* Dr. Bellum from ''WesternAnimation/CarmenSandiego'', V.I.L.E.'s top scientist.
151	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBus'' gives us Jyoti. An Indian girl who's the new kid in the class and a technology expert.
152	[[/folder]]

Context Main / BollywoodNerd