Kay Kay Menon

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From the age of nine Kay Kay Menon was frontrunner in drama at school Kay Kay Menon has an inbuilt talent for acting which was discovered by his teachers at St. Josephs Boys' High School in Khadki, Pune. His teachers would coax him to act. Initially Kay Kay would be hesitate but soon he began enjoying and excelled 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 schools plays. Kay Kay kicked his lucrative advertising agency job for theatre Though Kay Kay had a penchant for dramatics yet 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 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 2 month old drama company and have no space for new comer. Nevertheless he asked Kay Kay to hang around and if 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 that she conveys her point without hurting anyone. They married on March15, 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 theatre industry. Makarand Deshpande introduced Kay Kay to Saeed Mirza Makarand Deshpande, the popular actor with curly hair and thick moustache (Satya and Jungle) is a known figure in 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 actor to play a young fire brand fundamentalist leader. The film opened doors for Kay Kay as he was noticed by 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 film industry and was even signed by 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 film 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 but lady luck was evading him. Despite his films Naseem, Black Friday and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, winning critically acclaim, Kay Kay was not getting a commercial 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 a 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 marvelous 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.