Did Akshay Kumar Use A Teleprompter In Films? Sudhir Pandey Reveals

Sudhir Pandey, a veteran actor has recently sparked a new debate after addressing the rumours regarding Akshay Kumar and his use of teleprompters, cue cards and placards on sets. Speaking on Siddharth Kannan’s podcast the veteran actor who had worked with Akshay Kumar on various projects went on to confirm the long-standing rumours about the superstar using help for long and lengthy dialogue sequences.

What Did Sudhir Pandey Say About Akshay Kumar Using A Teleprompter?

Talking about how the superstar manages to remember long and complex lines during the shoots, Pandey revealed that while Akshay was keen in trying to remember the lines early in his career but as things went on his approach changed. Pandey added that the superstar began relying on teleprompters and cue cards during lon monologue shoots, especially during the shooting of 2017 blockbuster Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.

“In Tees Maar Khan, he didn’t rely on it much. But in Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, he took help for long sequences,” Pandey stated during the interview. “Perhaps now that he gets that convenience, he has started to abuse the system. It is not easy to adapt to something new once you get used to a particular comfort level.”

Even though Sudhir Pandey admitted to Askhay Kumar using the means, he clarified that this does not affect the acting of natural flow at all as the professionals are easy to adapt and moreover it is not like reading from a book or something, it is there to assist and no eye contact is maintained throughout.

Why Do Top Bollywood Stars Rely On Cue Cards And Prompters?

The phenomenon of utilizing dialogue cues is much more prevalent in mainstream Bollywood cinema than one may know, particularly for stars who are engaged in more than one movie at a time. According to those from the industry, time constraint and long dialogues sometimes lead production houses to make use of cue boards or teleprompters in order to save time.

This is not the first time that Sudhir Pandey or an artist/ director has revealed such a secret of the industry. Suneel Darshan, a veteran director, who had worked with Akshay Kumar on many commercially successful films such as Jaanwar, Ek Rishtaa, and Andaaz, had once revealed that the actor found it difficult to remember lengthy pages of script.

“It’s very good if an actor can memorize his lines, but for him, it was always difficult to remember complete pages of dialogues,” Suneel Darshan had shared in an earlier interview. “It was manageable in the beginning when he was doing fewer films, but we used to put placards for him to read from later on. And he is certainly not the first person in the industry to do it.”

How Has Akshay Kumar’s Acting Craft Evolved Over The Decades?

Pandey, though critical about the reliance on teleprompter, devoted considerable time during the interview extolling the great success story of Akshay Kumar as an actor since his action-based days back in the early 1990s. Recounting his first venture with Akshay Kumar in “Paandav” (1995), Pandey pointed out the actor’s metamorphosis from an action star to a comedian.

According to Pandey, while Akshay was known to take multiple retakes early in his career, he would always try to hone his skills through each and every shot. In the nineties, producers were highly cautious about film stocks and retake charges. These days, digital shooting gives the actors their freedom, although it has rendered prompters readily available.

On a slightly personal front, Pandey revealed having tried to contact Akshay informally through his management for a friendly meet, which had been going unanswered. However, the seasoned actor made it clear that he saw nothing offensive in it as this was part and parcel of today’s stardom.

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