Kay Kay Menon

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Kay Kay Menon
Actor Kay Kay Menon standing, dressed in a red and black tuxedo.
Menon in 2016
Born
Krishna Kumar Menon

(1965-10-02) 2 October 1965 (age 58)
EducationUniversity of Pune, Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA)
OccupationActor
Years active1995–present
Spouse(s)Nivedita Bhattacharya

Krishna Kumar Menon (born 2 October 1965[1]), better known by the stage name Kay Kay Menon, is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Hindi cinema, and also in Gujarati, Tamil, Marathi and Telugu cinema.

Early life[edit]

Menon was born in a Nair family in Thiruvananthapuram and raised in Ambarnath and Pune, Maharashtra.[1]

He studied at the St. Joseph High School in Khadki, Pune.[2] He passed his 10th grade in 1981. He did his Bachelors (Physics)[1] from Mumbai University[citation needed] and his MBA from Department of Management Sciences (PUMBA) at the University of Pune,[1] graduating in 1988 with a major in Marketing.

Menon's initial focus was working in the advertising industry[1] including Kinetic Honda and Marlboro cigarette advertisements in India.

Career[edit]

He started his career in theatre productions where he met Nivedita Bhattacharya, whom he married. His first theatre break was opposite Naseeruddin Shah in Feroz Abbas Khan's Mahatma vs Gandhi.[3]

In the early years of his career, Menon worked on television, with roles in the TV movies Zebra 2 and Last Train To Mahakali. He was praised for his role as a young Prime Minister in the Zee TV series Pradhan Mantri (2001), directed by Ketan Mehta. In The Hindu, Sevanti Ninan wrote, "an actor to watch: Kay Kay Menon ... this unusually tall actor who plays the pradhan mantri is a major saving grace"[4] while in The Tribune, Amita Malik commented, "excellent acting by Menon, who skilfully conveys the physical as well as mental image of the honest politician".[5]

Menon made his big screen debut with a small role in Naseem (1995), followed in 1999 by the lead role in Bhopal Express,[3] a movie that went mostly unnoticed. This was the first in a series of initial setbacks in Menon's film career. In the early 2000s, he starred as a wicked rock musician in Anurag Kashyap's debut movie, Paanch, which struggled with censorship and has remained unreleased.[6][7] Two other movies, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi and Black Friday, had to wait many years for a release date. Meanwhile, his commercial films Deewar (starring Amitabh Bachchan) and Silsiilay (with Shahrukh Khan) flopped at the box office. It was only in 2005, with the eventual release of the critically acclaimed Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, but with Ram Gopal Varma's Sarkar, Menon had his break.[6] Sarkar earned him a nomination for the Best Performance in a Negative Role at the Filmfare Awards.[citation needed] In The Tribune, Saibal Chatterjee called him "one of Bollywood's finest actors".[6]

In 2007, he acted in Life in a... Metro, as an adulterous husband. In 2008, he appeared in Shaurya[8][9] based on A Few Good Men . His portrayal of a ruthless army brigadier is still talked of among cinema lovers.[10][11] In 2009, he starred in The Stoneman Murders where he played a police officer on the hunt for the Stoneman serial killer.[12] He played the role of Dukki Bana in Gulaal.

His role as Khurram Mir in 2014's Haider bagged him a Filmfare and IIFA award for Best Supporting Actor. He played a very crucial role in The Ghazi Attack as a Naval Captain based on an Indian Naval submarine, S21, intercepts a Pakistani submarine, PNS Ghazi, during routine surveillance and thwarts its mission of destroying INS Vikrant in 1971. He played a role as Vikram Singh in 2019's Penalty with co-actor Mohit Nain.

He impressed and gained more popularity with a role as Himmat Singh in 2020's Special Ops - a web series for Hotstar. In 2021, he again played the young version of Himmat Singh (R&AW leading officer) in Special Ops 1.5, the prequel part of Special Ops. OTT viewers admired his performance in this series.[13] Following the resounding success of espionage thriller Special Ops, Hotstar Specials is set to ring in a new form of storytelling with the launch of ‘Special Ops Universe’, created and conceptualized by film-maker Neeraj Pandey and Friday Storytellers.

Filmography[edit]

  • All films are in Hindi, unless otherwise stated.

Films[edit]

Year Film Role Notes
1995 Naseem Islamic fundamentalist Debut film[3]
1999 Bhopal Express Verma
2002 Chhal Karan Menon
2003 Paanch Luke Morisson Unreleased[7]
2003 Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi Siddharth Tyabji Released in theaters in 2005[14]
2004 Black Friday DCP Rakesh Maria Released in theaters in 2007[15]
2004 Deewaar Sohail Miyaan
2004 Silsiilay Anwar Ahmed Bhoy
2005 Sarkar Vishnu Nagare Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role
2005 Dansh Mathew
2005 Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh Akash
2005 Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena Kaif
2006 Corporate Ritesh Sahani Nominated—GIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor
2006 Shoonya Mahendra Naik
2007 Strangers Sanjeev Rai
2007 Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. Partho Sen
2007 Life in a... Metro Ranjit Kapoor Nominated—IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role
2007 Go Nagesh Rao
2008 Sarkar Raj Vishnu Nagare
2008 Highway 203 Writer Unreleased[16]
2008 Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam Haldi Hasan
2008 Mumbai Meri Jaan Suresh
2008 Via Darjeeling Ankur Sharma
2008 Shaurya Brigadier Rudra Pratap Singh
2008 Sirf Gaurav
2008 Drona Riz Razaida
2009 The Stoneman Murders Sanjay Shelar
2009 Gulaal Dukey Bana
2009 Aage se right Janubhai/Baima Rashidul Kairi
2009 Sankat City Guru
2010 Tera Kya Hoga Johnny Inspector Shashikant Chiple
2010 Lafangey Parindey Anna
2010 Benny And Babloo Benny
2011 Bheja Fry 2 Ajit Talwar
2011 Bhindi Bazaar Shroff
2012 Chaalis Chouraasi Albert Pinto
2012 Life Ki Toh Lag Gayi Salman
2012 Shahid War saab
2013 Enemmy: Law and Disorder CID Officer Naeem Shaikh
2013 ABCD: Any Body Can Dance Jehangir Khan
2013 Udhayam NH4 ACP Manoj Menon IPS Tamil film
2013 Ankur Arora Murder Case Dr. Viren Asthana
2014 Raja Natwarlal Vardha Yadav
2014 Haider Khurram Meer Won—Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor[17]

Won—IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role

Nominated—BIG Star Entertainment Awards for Most Entertaining Actor in a Thriller Film – Male

Nominated—IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated—Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor

Nominated—Screen Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role

Nominated—Producers Guild Film Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role

Nominated—Stardust Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role

2015 Baby Bilal Khan
2015 Rahasya CBI Officer Sunil Paraskar
2015 Bombay Velvet Investigative Officer Vishwas Kulkarni
2015 Singh Is Bliing Mark
2016 A Flying Jatt Mr. Rakesh Malhotra
2016 Saat Uchakkey Tejpal
2017 The Ghazi Attack Captain Ranvijay Singh Telugu / Hindi
2018 Dhaad Ghelo Gujarati;[18] released 17 years after being shot
2018 Vodka Diaries ACP Ashwini Dixit
2018 Baa Baaa Black Sheep ACP Shivraj Naik
2018 Phamous Kadak Singh
2018 Ek Sangaychay Marathi film
2019 San' 75 Pachattar[19] Govind Unreleased film
2019 Penalty Vikram Singh Netflix film
2020 Ray
2021 Shaadisthan Disney+ Hotstar
TBA FirrkieThe film has not yet been released[20]
TBA 3 DevThe film has not yet been released[21] Satyavan

Television[edit]

Year Show Role
1995-1996 Darr Inspector Avinash
1999 Star Bestsellers - Zebra 2 Captain Rajeev
1999 Star Bestsellers - Last Train to Mahakali Sir
2000 Rishtey - Ward No. 6 Rajat
2001 Pradhan Mantri PM Anirudh Prakash
2005 Time Bomb 9/11 Prime Minister of India
2014 Yudh Municipal Commissioner

Web series[edit]

Year Title Role Platform Notes
2018 The Great Indian Dysfunctional Family Vikram Ranaut ALTBalaji
2020 Special OPS Himmat Singh Disney+ Hotstar
2021 Ray Inderashish[22] Netflix
2021 Special Ops 1.5: The Himmat Story Himmat Singh Disney+ Hotstar
2023 Farzi Mansoor Dalal Amazon Prime Video

Short film(s)[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2019 The Last Chapter

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Gupta, Priya (29 September 2014). "Kay Kay Menon: I take my work seriously, not myself". The Times of India. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  2. Ravi, Shruti (19 January 2012). "Pune is like Mumbai now, says Kay Kay Menon". The Times of India. Retrieved 9 September 2016.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Gupta, Priya (30 September 2014). "Kay Kay Menon: I take my work seriously, not myself". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  4. Ninan, Sevanti (22 April 2001). "Melodrama with a K". The Hindu. Retrieved 23 July 2021. An actor to watch: Kay Kay Menon in "Pradhan Mantri". While the cynicism in this serial continues to be overstated through the second episode, this unusually tall actor who plays the pradhan mantri is a major saving grace. His lines could be better, but he mouths them with conviction. Looks like he will have to carry this serial on his shoulders.
  5. Malik, Amita (27 April 2001). "Mantris in tough competition". The Tribune. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Chatterjee, Saibal (28 August 2005). "A man among boys". The Tribune. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Shrivastava, Vipra (26 December 2014). "Seven reasons why Anurag Kashyap is the 'ugliest' filmmaker". India Today. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  8. "Review: Shaurya". www.rediff.com.
  9. "Masand's Verdict: Shaurya « Rajeev Masand – movies that matter : from bollywood, hollywood and everywhere else".
  10. "'Drona reminded me of my childhood'". www.rediff.com.
  11. "'Drona' makers spend a fortune on villain". DNA India. 13 September 2008.
  12. Vijayakar, Rajiv (20 February 2009). "The Stoneman Murders (Hindi)". Screen India. Archived from the original on 25 February 2009. Retrieved 28 February 2009.
  13. ""Special ops 1.5"". Disney+ Hotstar. 12 November 2021.
  14. "Hazaaron Revisited". The Telegraph. 18 October 2013. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  15. "Moving beyond art". The Telegraph. 25 January 2009. Archived from the original on 31 January 2009. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  16. Highway 203 on IMDb. Retrieved on 8 September 2016
  17. "Queen and Haider rule at Filmfare awards". The National. 1 February 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  18. Oza, Nandini (5 January 2018). "After 17 years, Gujarati film Dhaad starring Nandita Das set for release". The Week.
  19. T-Series, SAN 75 (Pachattar) Official Theatrical Trailer | Kay Kay Menon, Kirti Kulhari, Tom Alter | T-Series, retrieved 2 January 2019
  20. Firrkie, retrieved 2 January 2019
  21. Zee Music Company, 3 Dev - Official Trailer |Karan Singh Grover, Ravi Dubey, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Kay Kay Menon, Raima Sen, retrieved 2 January 2019
  22. "'Ray' trailer: Netflix anthology is a tribute to the master filmmaker". The Hindu. 9 June 2021. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 16 June 2021.

External links[edit]

Template:FilmfareAwardBestSupportingActor

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