Kay Kay Menon added a new dimension to villainy in Haider Kay Kay Menon added new dimensions to villainy in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider (2014). His character of Khurram Meer, the evil uncle of Haider (2014), was an adaption of cruel Claudius, who was Hamlet’s evil uncle in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But Kay Kay Menon, instead of portraying the character meanly gave a new twist to it with an element of innocence. The rare combination of innocence with a pinch of evilness made the character stand out. The movie fetched him his first Filmfare and IIFA Best Villain award. The role of Khurram Meer has immortalized Kay Kay in the annals of Indian film history.
From the age of nine Kay Kay Menon was the frontrunner in drama at school Kay Kay Menon has an inbuilt talent for acting which was discovered by his teachers at St. Joseph Boys' High School in Khadki, Pune. His teachers would coax him to act. Initially, Kay Kay would hesitate but soon he began enjoying and excelling at dramatics in school. He remembers that he played a sunflower in class three when he was 9 years old. After that, he was a regular in all the school's plays. Kay Kay kicked his lucrative advertising agency job for theatre Though Kay Kay had a penchant for dramatics he had never thought that he would take acting as his career. Hence he first did his graduation in Physics from Mumbai University and MBA in Marketing from the Department of Management Sciences University of Pune (PUMBA). He started his career by working in an advertising agency but just after one month he quit the lucrative job which had offered him a salary of four figures. He decided to go independent and made a few corporate films like Kinetic Honda and Marlboro cigarette advertisements in India. But still, he did not have job satisfaction. One day he happened to watch Julius Caesar play at The Motley Theatre Group in Bandra West, Mumbai. He was left dazed by the mesmerizing performance of Naseeruddin Shah and immediately after the play he went backstage and met Naseeruddin Shah. However, to his disappointment, Shah told him that they were just a 2-month-old drama company and had no space for newcomers. Nevertheless, he asked Kay Kay to hang around and if the opportunity arises he may get a chance.
Kay Kay and Nivedita Bhattacharya have a good understanding Kay Kay met his wife Nivedita Bhattacharya at Motley Theatre Group. She was also a budding actress. The two became friends and love blossomed. Kay Kay admires his wife for her talents and her open-mindedness, which he says has a political style in which she conveys her point without hurting anyone. They married on March 15, 2005.
Kay Kay came into prominence with the play Mahatma Vs Gandhi Kay Kay spent many months hanging around Motley Theatre Group. Finally, he was included as an extra in the drama company but he had in-build talent which was first discovered by his school teachers and was later observed by Naseeruddin Shah. Hence when popular theatre director Feroz Abbas Khan signed Naseeruddin Shah as Gandhi in his popular play Mahatma Vs Gandhi, Naseer recommended him to cast Kay Kay opposite him in the crucial role of Hiralal, the son of Mahatma, who was rebellious and countered Mahatma’s ideology. Feroz agreed and the result was fantastic. As Hiralal, Kay Kay infused much firework in his performance and the play won rave reviews that established Kay Kay’s name in the theatre industry. Makarand Deshpande introduced Kay Kay to Saeed Mirza Makarand Deshpande, the popular actor with curly hair and a thick moustache (Satya and Jungle) is a known figure in the theatre world. Kay Kay became his close buddy and the two would move around during their struggling days. It was Makarand Deshpande, who introduced Kay Kay to film director Saeed Mirza, who was making the sensitive film Naseem (1995) based on communal riots. He was in search of an actor to play a young firebrand fundamentalist leader. The film opened doors for Kay Kay as he was noticed by the film industry’s two prominent film-makers viz Anurag Kashyap, who signed him for Paanch and Black Friday and Sudhir Mishra for his critically acclaimed Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi. With Black Friday and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Kay Kay made his presence felt in the film industry and was even signed by a few commercial filmmakers like Amitabh Bachchan and Sanjay Dutt Starrer Deewaar - Let's Bring Our Heroes Home (2004), Vashu Bhagnani's Silsiilay (2004) but alas both films failed. Kay Kay became a star with Ram Gopal Verma’s Sarkar Though Kay Kay was lucky to get work from famous filmmakers like Saeed Mirza, Anurag Kashyap and Sudhir Mishra lady luck was evading him. Despite his films Naseem, Black Friday and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, winning critical acclaim, Kay Kay was not getting a commercially successful film. However, in 2005, he got his first blockbuster, Sarkar. Directed by Ram Gopal Verma, the film witnessed Kay Kay locking horns with Amitabh Bachchan. In this film, he played the negative role of Vishnu Nagare, the wayward son of Subhash Nagare ( Amitabh Bachchan). Kay Kay got a great opportunity to display his genius as an actor opposite Amitabh Bachchan. Kay Kay gave his best and was nominated for the first time by Filmfare for his marvellous act in Sarkar as Best Villain. After Sarkar, Kay Kay Menon became a hit star and did many popular films like Life in a... Metro, Sarkar Raj, Gulaal, Bheja Fry 2, Shahid, ABCD: Any Body Can Dance, Haider, Baby, The Ghazi Attack etc.
# | Released Date | Type | Credited As | Movie |
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1 | 31 Dec 2025 | Film | Actor | Firrkie |
2 | 01 Sep 2023 | Film | Actor | Love All |
3 | 11 Jun 2021 | Film | Actor | Shaadisthan |
4 | 19 Jul 2019 | Film | Actor | Penalty |
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6 | 26 Oct 2018 | Film | Supporting Actor | 3 Dev |
7 | 19 Oct 2018 | Film | Actor | The Dark Side Of Life: Mumbai City |
8 | 01 Jun 2018 | Film | Supporting Actor | Phamous |
9 | 23 Mar 2018 | Film | Supporting Actor | Baa Baaa Black Sheep |
10 | 19 Jan 2018 | Film | Actor | Vodka Diaries |
11 | 01 Jan 2018 | Film | Actor | Dhaad |
12 | 07 Jul 2017 | Film | Actor | San 75 Pachattar |