Interview : Kay Kay Menon

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Kay Kay Menon’s latest release Sankat City tickles the funny bone. While the film receives positive reviews, the actor is on a high these days with a variety of films lined up for release. Our correspondent catches up the talented actor

You keep missing from the theatres and then come up with a just unexpected performance and you get back into the public eye.
(Smiles) Is it so? Well, I never see it that way. I don’t crave for attention but let my work speak for me. If I have really done a good job in my film, I know, it will get noticed. That is the natural phenomenon. If my work is not worth appreciation, why should it be done? Its simple logic but I have always believed in criticism because at the end of the day it helps the actor a lot.

“There are only good films and bad films…”

So you have another very unusual release and it’s a comedy this time.
Yes, it a very different kind of film and as the name suggest it’s also a bit different. (Laughs) People are asking me if it’s a comedy, if it’s a thriller…what is it. It’s a very edgy comic thriller.

Sounds interesting and it’s very new genre too…
It isn’t exactly a genre but certainly it’s interesting. I play a car thief and then the film is about chasing this thief. The thefts are all done in very unusual styles, which brings the thrill element and the cast becomes hilarious which is the comedy part. The scripting has been done so smartly that it makes it a very fast paced film.

CHECK OUT: SANKAT CITY Movie Review

Rimmi Sen will be seen after a long time opposite time.
In fact I wonder why she does so few films. She has done a real good job. She is like my ally who helps me in the thefts and there are a lot of action scenes, which she had to do. She was a real sport and full of energy doing all these films.
Okay, but you haven’t done too many comedy films earlier.
(Laughs). But that is how I am. I have done a number of roles where I have been serious… very heavy-duty stuff but at the end as an actor I too have this thirst for variety. My role in EK KHILADI EK HASEENA had shades of comedy but this time it’s a lot more different.

In fact your role of Duke Bana in Anurag Kashyap’s GULAAL was completely opposite and it earned you rave reviews.
It’s one of the best films I had done. Anurag makes great films and I am happy to have worked in quite a few films with him. It was a very real life character that I was playing and we all were actually waiting for GULAAL to release, as it was quite a few years we had to wait.

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Interestingly, all your films with Anurag Kashyap so far have been well received by the audiences but they somehow fall prey to some or the other controversy. (Laughs and continues) That’s the most tragic part and even Anurag and I have always discussed that. But when you have a strong script and a director like Anurag you need not think twice. BLACK FRIDAY released after years, GULAAL released after almost three years but they were films that left a mark in the mind of the audiences.

And when does PAANCH release?
(Laughs again) Now see that’s another film and we don’t even know when it’s releasing but I hope it releases sometime this year. PAANCH is like an enigma for me now. It had a wonderful script.

Is it only scripts that matter to you?
What else do you require! It has to be the script and then comes a good director. There isn’t anything an actor can ask for. He is the third one in the line after that who needs to perform.

CHECK OUT: K K speaks on SANKAT CITY

Then why did you sign a film like DRONA?
As I said, I like experimenting. It didn’t work but I gave in my best. At times you fail though you think that you have given your best. Every actor dreams of becoming a Robert Di Niro some day, but that doesn’t mean he will succeed. I can make all my roles look big and larger than life.

But you have very intelligently juggled between both kinds of cinema?
It’s all because I loved doing those films. Every actor wants his films to get noticed, earn attention and do good business and I am no different. There’s nothing called …this kind of cinema or that kind of cinema. There are only two kinds of films – good films and bad films.

So are you happy with the way you have done so far?
So far I have done quite a few kinds of films, selected them after a lot of thinking and I am more or less very satisfied with the way things have been so far. It’s not that I don’t have regrets. Everyone makes mistakes and then has regrets as follow up. But certainly, I am more happy because there have been fewer instances of regrets. (Smiles)

What are your next projects?
There’s a comedy called AAGE SE RIGHT, then there’s David Dhawan’s HOOK YA CROOK, which is a comedy but it’s more of a film based on sports and then I am really hopeful about my next release, which is BENNY AUR BABLU, with Rajpal Yadav. He is a damn talented actor and I hope the audiences are going to like us together.