‘Maybe he has now started abusing the system’: Sudhir Pandey recalls Akshay Kumar using teleprompter for ‘long sequences’ in ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’
Veteran actor Sudhir Pandey spoke about working with Akshay Kumar and revealed that the star sometimes relied on a teleprompter while shooting long 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 performance has improved significantly over the years.
Sudhir Pandey talks about Akshay Kumar’s use of teleprompters
During a conversation with Siddharth Kannan, Sudhir was asked about the long-standing industry hype surrounding Akshay’s use of cue cards and teleprompters on sets. Reflecting on their early collaboration in ‘Paandav’, the veteran actor said that Akshay initially made an effort to memorize his dialogues, even if some help was available.
Talking 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 string 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 long sequences of ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’ (Maybe he has now started abusing the system. It’s not easy to adapt something new once you get used to it).
“When asked if the large cards placed in front of Akshay distracted the other actors during the scene, Sudhir dismissed the concern.“No, make eye contact with toh hota rehta hai. Yeh toh sirf help karne ke liye rehta hai.” (No, eye contact is maintained at all times. He is just there to help)The actor further explained that his acting style is completely different. He said he prefers to absorb every dialogue before performing and can’t imagine relying on a teleprompter while facing the camera.
When Siddharth Kannan asked if these facilities would also be available to the character actor, Sudhir smiled and admitted that he was “not sure”.
Sudhir Pandey praises Akshay’s transformation
While discussing Akshay’s work ethics, Sudhir asserted that the actor has evolved tremendously over the years.“Akshay was very raw. If we compare him now, there was a jump in his performance. He was doing a lot of reshoots. But with every retake, he was improving his performance.”
Taking retakes isn’t a bad thing. Now times have changed. Now, you can take as many retakes as you want. But in the past, there were inventories and producers were vigilant about recaptures.”According to Sudhir, Akshay is constantly improving with every shot and eventually becoming a much stronger performer.
Sunil Darshan had made a similar revelation
Sudhir Pandey is not the first industry insider to talk about Akshay’s reliance on dialogue.
Earlier, director Sunil Darshan also confirmed that the actor sometimes uses placards during the shoot.Speaking to Vicky Lalwani, Darshan said, “It is very good for an actor to be able to memorize his lines, but for him it was always difficult to remember entire pages of dialogues. It was easy in the beginning because he was doing less work, but he faced a problem during the last years of our working together. We used to put up signs for him to read from, and he was not the first person to do that.”Akshay Kumar was last seen in Welcome to the Jungle, which received moderate response at the box office.
