Veteran actor Sudhir Pandey has opened up about working with Akshay Kumar, revealing that the superstar occasionally relied on a teleprompter while filming lengthy scenes in ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’. Having shared screen space with Akshay in films like ‘Paandav’, ‘Tees Maar Khan’, ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ and ‘Padman’, Pandey also praised the actor’s growth, saying his performances have improved significantly over the years.
Sudhir Pandey on Akshay Kumar’s use of teleprompters
During a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Sudhir was asked about the long-standing industry buzz surrounding Akshay’s use of cue cards and teleprompters on set. Reflecting on their early collaboration in ‘Paandav’, the veteran actor said Akshay initially made an effort to memorise his dialogues, even if some assistance was available.Speaking about the actor’s current working style, Sudhir said, “Tees Maar Khan mein toh utna nahi kiya tha. Par ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ mein usne help liya tha long sequence mein. Ab ho sakta hai use ek suvidha milti hai, so woh usey abhi abuse karne laga hai. Yeh aasan nahi hai once you get used to something (He used it more in ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ long sequences. Perhaps he has now started to abuse the system. It’s not easy to adapt something new once you get used to it).”When asked whether the large cue cards placed in front of Akshay were distracting for other actors during a scene, Sudhir dismissed the concern.“No, eye contact toh hota rehta hai. Yeh toh sirf help karne ke liye rehta hai.” (No, eye contact is maintained throughout. It’s only there to provide assistance)The actor further explained that his own approach to acting is quite different. He said he prefers to internalise every dialogue before performing and cannot imagine depending on a teleprompter while facing the camera. When Siddharth Kannan asked whether such a facility would also be available to a character actor, Sudhir smiled and admitted he was “not sure.”
Sudhir Pandey praises Akshay’s transformation
While discussing Akshay’s work ethic, Sudhir emphasised that the actor has evolved immensely over the years.“Akshay was quite raw. If we compare him now, there’s been a leap in his performance. He used to take a lot of retakes. But with each retake, he used to improve his performance. Taking retakes is not a bad thing. Now times have changed. Now, you can take as many retakes as you want. But back in the day, there used to be stocks and producers were watchful about taking retakes.”According to Sudhir, Akshay consistently improved with every take, eventually becoming a much stronger performer.
Suneel Darshan had made a similar revelation
Sudhir Pandey is not the first industry insider to speak about Akshay’s dependence on dialogue prompts. Earlier, filmmaker Suneel Darshan had also confirmed that the actor occasionally used placards during shoots.Speaking to Vickey Lalwani, Darshan had said, “It’s very good if an actor can memorise his lines, but for him it was always difficult to remember complete pages of dialogues. It was manageable in the beginning because he was doing less work, but he did have a problem during the later years of us working together. We used to put placards for him to read from, and he is not the first person to do it.”Akshay Kumar was last seen in ‘Welcome to the Jungle’, which received a moderate response at the box office.
