Akshay Kumar used to ‘read dialogues’ from placards, says co-actor: ‘A leap as a performer’ | Bollywood News

4 min readNew DelhiJul 22, 2026 08:30 PM Many industry veterans have earlier revealed that Akshay Kumar relies on off-camera aids like teleprompters and cue cards to deliver his lines. The actor’s former co-star Sudhir Pandey, who worked with Akshay in popular films like Paandav (1995), Tees Maar Khan (2010), and Mission Raniganj (2023), and many others, recently shared that he used to read his lines using placards. During a podcast, the veteran actor also revealed that he once contacted Akshay’s manager for acting opportunities but didn’t receive any response.
When asked about his experience of working with Akshay in Paandav, Sudhir told Siddharth Kannan, “He was very nice to me. He was very new, but there was a passion to do something. He was quite raw at that time. If we compare it to today’s era, then there’s a leap as a performer.”
“Raw in the sense of understanding the character and shots. He was quite supportive whenever producers asked for retakes. If there was any other actor and he had to give 2-3 retakes, it is common to feel nervous. But with every retake, he was improving. Today it’s digital, earlier there were film rolls. The producer used to stress because of retakes, the stocks were everything,” he said.
ALSO READ | Paresh Rawal said Akshay Kumar didn’t give him OMG 2 credit; director slams him: ‘Why now?’
Praising Akshay for his growth over the past few years, Sudhir shared, “He was friendly with me. He used to remember his lines less, but the director used to manage giving lesser lines in one shot. But, the Akshay now is too good, so confident. Humour, comic sense, timing, action is already brilliant. He used to try learning the lines, but he used the display sheets, which had lines written on them.”
The veteran actor further added, “Maybe with time, he might have started abusing this facility. Someone holds those sheets so that he can deliver the dialogues. It’s just for support. But, he prefers doing rehearsals beforehand. No matter for how long, he has it in him to do rehearsals.”
Recalling an anecdote when he tried to approach Akshay Kumar for work, he shared, “I can say that I have that good of a bond, but I haven’t asked him yet. I can say this much if he can consider me for any character. There was an office number of his manager, I dialed it twice or thrice. But, I didn’t get any response, he didn’t pick the call. So, such a chance never came that I had to ask for work from him.”Story continues below this ad
What Suneel Darshan said about Akshay Kumar
While talking to Vickey Lalwani earlier this year, filmmaker Suneel Darshan, who has collaborated with Akshay Kumar on many successful films, was asked about what kind of an actor he was in the nascent stages of his career.
He had shared, “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.”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Sudhir Pandey was last seen in the comedy drama Ginny Weds Sunny 2.