At a time when Bollywood films still showed actors cavorting and singing in the streets of Switzerland and spending an evening in Paris, Telugu cinema had an America Abbayi that crossed the Atlantic. The doyen of Telugu cinema, D. Madhusudan Rao, who pioneered the industry’s shift from Chennai to Hyderabad in the 1970s, produced America Abbayi (American Boy), the story of a Telugu boy in the United States. The characters in the film do not go abroad to dance and shop, as they do in so many Hindi films, but simply to live their normal professional lives. The plot is certainly not the point. What is interesting about the film is that it was shot on location in “Middle America,” not the big cities along both coasts, but in places like Chicago and in Michigan, Illinois and Ohio — and one of the main characters was a doctor. The film showed how normal the social connection between the Telugus and Middle America had become by then.

The first wave of Indian professionals who migrated to the United States after the US Congress liberalized immigration policies in 1965, allowing Indian doctors and engineers to find work in the United States, included a large number of Telugus. Guntur Medical College soon became home to a large number of doctors who migrated to the US. It is therefore not surprising that producer Madhusudan Rao and director Singeetam Srinivas Rao, known for their many box office hits, made a doctor the mother of America Abbayi.

Telugus in America have come a long way. A Telugu “ammayi” (girl) is knocking on the door of the White House. If Donald Trump wins his second term in November this year, and if he does not amend the US Constitution to allow him to seek a third term, his Vice President, JD Vance, will most likely get a shot at becoming President of the United States in 2028. Usha Chilukuri will then be the first Indian-American and Telugu First Lady.

Usha’s father graduated from IIT Madras and her paternal grandfather, C. Rama Sastry, was a member of the “founding faculty” of IIT Madras. Usha Chilukuri was born and raised in the United States, but has relatives, including a 96-year-old great-aunt, living in Andhra Pradesh. While Gujaratis and Punjabis dominated the early Indian migration to the US after Independence, Telugus quickly caught up. After the first wave in the 1960s, the second wave came in the 1990s, thanks to the Y2K boom. The past two decades have seen a virtual stampede of Telugus to the US.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Telugu-speaking population in America has increased rapidly from 320,000 in 2016 to 1.23 million in 2024. It was reported that at the last census, the state of California was home to the largest Telugu-speaking community of over 200,000, with Texas (150,000) and New Jersey (110,000) in second and third place. Illinois, mainly Chicago, is home to 83,000 Telugus, followed by Virginia (78,000) and Georgia (52,000). Telugu is the 11th most spoken language in a country that reports 350 spoken languages.

A realization of this dynamic and trend prompted the Manmohan Singh government to allow the United States to open a consulate in Hyderabad, then the capital of the erstwhile United State of Andhra Pradesh. Consular data showed that the largest number of visas issued in South India went to Telugus, who had to submit their applications through the consulate in Chennai. With the support of Prime Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, both the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of External Affairs

affairs were able to convince the Ministry of Home Affairs to allow the location of the US consulate in Hyderabad instead of Bengaluru. The dossier work was completed in time for President George W. Bush to make the official announcement during his visit to Hyderabad in 2006. The consulate in Hyderabad has reportedly become one of the largest US consulates in Asia.

While the bifurcation of the state led to the formation of separate associations of Telugu Americans from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the original Telugu Association of North America (TANA) remains one of the oldest such associations of Indian-Americans in the US. Founded in 1977, TANA has long hosted celebrities from the region visiting the US and now boasts a wide range of cultural and welfare activities in both the US and India. Apart from their numbers, Telugus have also made their mark on American life. From computer scientists like Carnegie Mellon and Turing Award winner Rajagopal “Raj” Reddy to business gurus like CK Prahalad and corporate leaders like Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Telugus have also made their mark in the American academic and corporate arenas. While Usha Chilukuri achieves her current high-profile status as the wife of a famous politician, she also represents the large and growing community of high-achieving Telugus in the US.

The bilateral relationship between India and the US is therefore increasingly defined by the weight of the Indian diaspora in American academic, economic, political and cultural life. However, it would be wrong for anyone to assume that stronger people-to-people connections can in themselves transform inter-state relations. The former can certainly help to provide ballast to the relationship and to counterbalance political and business lobbies that may have other priorities. But at times it can also contribute to difficult political situations. We see this in the case of the US, where the political activism of various Indian-American and non-resident Indian groups has been both a source of support and a source of trouble in the bilateral relationship.

The most recent example is the political activism of pro-Khalistan groups. India’s attempt to address this problem has contributed to a seriously difficult situation, and we have not yet heard the last word on the issue. Less explosive but equally controversial is the political activism of an assortment of Indian-American groups, ranging from Dalit activists, Hindutva groups, left-wing organizations, and civil rights advocates. The growing numbers and rising profile of Indian-Americans works both ways. They help to build the U.S.-India relationship, but they also test its boundaries.