Kay Kay Menon Biography

Kay Kay Menon is an Indian film, stage and television actor who works predominantly in Hindi cinema, and also in Gujarati, Tamil and Telugu cinema. He has also won the award for best actor for the film Shoonya from Festival of Arab and Asian cinema.

Early Life

Menon was raised in Ambarnath and Pune, Maharashtra. His early life was spent in "H" type Rangehills, Khadki which were factory quarters for those working in the ammunition and high explosives factories. His father was popularly known as "Cashier Menon".

His parents moved from Kerala to Mumbai when he was very young. He considers Mumbai to be his hometown but has confessed to settling in Kerala in future.

Kichu, as Menon was known among friends, studied at the St Joseph's Boys High School in Khadki. He passed his 10th grade in 1981. He did his Bachelors (Physics) from Mumbai University and his MBA from the Department of Management Sciences at the University of Pune, graduating in 1988 with a major in marketing. He was popular in his class as a singer of ghazals.

Menon's initial focus was working in the advertising industry. He was involved in the first Kinetic Honda and Marlboro cigarette advertisements in India. He started his career in theatre productions where he met his wife, Nivedita Bhattacharya. He gradually moved to television acting and finally film acting. He made his film debut with Naseem (1995), followed by Bhopal Express.

Career

In the early years of his career, Menon worked in TV serials such as Pradhan Mantri and telefilms like Zebra 2 and Last Train To Mahakali. Menon was first noticed in Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi where he was greatly appreciated with fellow newcomer Chitrangada Singh and he received much acclaim for his performance.

His performance as the anguished DCP Rakesh Maria in the movie Black Friday has been widely appreciated and acclaimed. The movie, based on the book by journalist S. Hussain Zaidi on the 1993 Bombay Bomb Blasts was awaiting an Indian release for almost 2 years before its final release on 9 February 2007.

It was featured at the Locarno International Film Festival and received widespread praise. Kay Kay Menon's portrayal of the honest but human cop was appreciated. (When checking the house of the accused, he spots bananas in the refrigerator and promptly picks one up to eat, since he hasn't eaten well that day. However, seeing the look of the accompanying constable, he tells him, "You can take some too.. there's more in the fridge").

The Sunday Edition of the Indian Express described his performance as "Excellent as always". In 2007, he acted in the commercially and critically successful Life in a... Metro as the husband of Shilpa Shetty who has an extra-marital affair. In 2008, he was highly appreciated for his performance in the film Shaurya. He played a negative role in Drona starring Abhishek Bachchan, but the movie was a flop. In 2009, he starred in The Stoneman Murders where he played the role of a police officer searching for the Stoneman serial killer.