Akash Vutoki entered his initial spelling Bee contest when he was 2-years-old and still in diapers. He was triumphant in his first contest when he was 4-years-old and turn out to be the youngest speller at the nationals in 2016, at the age of six. Currently at the age of 8, Vukoti will take a further crack at the title next week at an Oceanside Resort complex outside Washington, District of Columbia that hosts the national Scripps Spelling Bee.
Vukoti is one of the four stars of “Breaking the Bee,” that follows four Indian-American spellers and their kin to record the inexorable, vicelike grip the tiny community of 4 million people, fewer than 1% of the United States population, has on a American institution.
And, finally, it gives the immigrant community a platform to unabashedly flaunt their Americanism: “Wow, Indians are on ESPN,” says Sanjay Gupta, a celebrity Indian American physician interviewed on the film.
The bee title fight has been aired live by sports channel, an institution itself, for more than two decades now.
Ever since 2008, each telecast has ended with an Indian-American or more, co winners in latest years, holding up the title as confetti glisten down around them.
By Sowmya Sangam
