A dog takes centre stage in Akshay Kumar latest comedy ‘Entertainment’.

An ardent animal lover, Akshay was overjoyed to be working alongside ‘Entertainment’ and canine artist Junior.

He said: “I myself grew up with a dog, which my dad had got for me, called Lucky. I would whistle to him and he would come to me. It’s amazing how these dogs know who they are supposed to get attached to.

“When you are feeling low, they will do something to you and you feel OK.”

But director duo Sajid-Farhad were a little taken aback when faced with working with a dog.

Farhad said: “As directors we found it difficult to extract work from a dog. But Junior was so good at emoting that we never once felt that we were shooting with an animal. He was completely natural before the camera.”

Referring to a scene in which it looks like the dog is actually talking, Sajid said: “It was Farhad’s idea to come up with that scene. It just happened on the spur of the moment and he told me and Akshay about it and we were game.”

Apparently Junior was a complete workaholic and shot for 15 days continuously. On the 16th day, he was given a break.

Sajid added: “We felt that he was getting restless and thus shot all playful scenes with him and that calmed him down.

“We even had a doctor present on the sets. But Junior is so well trained and talented their services were used the bare minimum.”

Sajid-Farhad are petrified of dogs but canine artist Junior put them at ease on the sets of Entertainment Sajid said: “We were scared of dogs until we completed this movie. I still remember how we shot a scene with 100 dogs. Farhad and I were nervous and were shaking like leaves.”

Farhad says that their loud barking had put a certain degree of fear in them.

He added: “Whenever while driving we passed any road a group of dogs would chase our vehicle barking loudly.

“At times when we’d get into a bungalow a dog would come rushing towards us growling ferociously. So we were petrified.”

‘Entertainment’ will be on general release at cinemas from August 8.