in the original series, the only Indian-coded guy we meet is a kooky but wise sage who seems to have been a non-bender scholar of air nomad culture or just a really earthly wise traveler. i always figured that some of the islands around air temples might have had some indian-ish cultures that would technically be part of the earth kingdom, or maybe he’s from an island nation somewhere in the big ocean on the other side of the planet.

anyway what im getting at is i actually think it’s a cool idea for an adaptation to try to place that indian-inspired culture somewhere and explore it as a little side worldbuilding thing through a couple of characters, so it’s a shame that such an option was ignored over just casting a bunch of indian people in a decidedly not-very-indian existing culture