Top 75 Kay Kay Menon Quotes

The paradox of perfection is that you should try and achieve it by doing quality work even though you know you can never achieve it.

For me, making time for God is like making time to fill my stomach – like the physical space in the stomach needs food, spiritual space in one’s soul needs regular prayer.

I like to play non-cardboard characters. I try and bring out the many complex layers in the personality of the characters I play.

I was true to myself because I realized I was a better actor than signer.

One fine day, I realised that advertising was not my calling. I closed shop and plunged into theatre.

I am born and brought up in Maharashtra so for me, Marathi is an often heard language.

I can’t pretend to do something I don’t like.

The industry is all about money. It has nothing to do with talent and calibre. The star system is a money game.

Bollywood is an industry that is closer to making more entertainment-based films than anything else because people here are bothered about money.

I don’t understand when people say character actors. You either have the protagonist or the antagonist and I’ve played both. It’s an actor’s role to play a character. Does that mean that main stream heroes and heroines are characterless?

People often accuse me of being serious. Have I played serious roles in ‘Honeymoon Travels’ and ‘Sankat City?’ It is just that after the films were made, producers did not have money to bombard it all over the place.

I think every Indian knows how to play cricket.

Cinema is not just a side show – it is something which is much deeper than that. It is a form of art which needs to be respected.

My mother was a housewife.

I never do roles, I play people.

I believe the era of Amitabh Bachchan is not going to come back. He is the last star that we have.

When I saw ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai,’ I felt proud be a part of the industry.

Acting is a symbiotic process, it is an amalgamation of many many things put together and when there is a call for action, that’s when you surrender and the moment of truth comes out, that’s when you perform. That is the process for every good actor.

I am an avid tennis player.

Content films necessary don’t go by the content, they go by the emotions. Content films are about content whether you want to portray the content or sell it through humour, through seriousness, is a choice of the filmmaker.

I remember my first role as a sunflower at nine.

Every film is made for a commercial purpose – to earn money at the box-office.

An actor should not bother about the camera per se, and what kind it is.

Preparing for roles sounds so academic, doesn’t it? It feels as if you are preparing for an examination! In a creative medium, the preparation is of an entirely different kind, and for me, the ideas flow from the script itself.

I am happy with the roles I play.

I have never done any homework even when I was a child!

I don’t exactly relate to grey characters.

The whole format of an awards function seems to be tailor made for a television audience. I think it is just an ego boosting affair.

If you make a good film, then there’s no harm if it achieves commercial success.

I like to promote my work. I do the promotion for my work because that is required. Apart from that I just don’t know how to promote myself, to be honest, I think my work ideally should speak for itself.

I thought running around trees is a gardener’s job and not an actor’s. However, if the script demands that I run around trees, well, you never know.

I am not really attached to my films and work. The film industry is just a small part of my life.

We used to stay in Aundh and as a kid I remember going to a single screen theatre to watch ‘Sholay’ with my family.

In my case, I’m in touch with God in good times and bad. I don’t use God as a means of favour. And I can’t do business with him – the very thought is bizarre.

I sift through the scripts offered to me and see what is worth attempting, because I think there is no point in wasting your time in doing something which you are not too keen on. I try and do whatever I feel interested in.

I believe in cinema! Unfortunately, 90 per cent of Hindi cinema is non-cinema. Only marketing works here. Even the item songs in these films are an extension of marketing.

Let’s not betray cinema with marketing inside the film. If it’s done outside, then it’s ok. That is essential to integrity.

The moment you achieve perfection, you are dead. The word exists because we are all imperfect. That is true about performance as well.

I keep an open mind when a script is narrated to me.

Art, I’ve always believed, is more real than life.

For me, the film-maker is more important than the story.

The city has given me space to think and that is one thing I love about Pune.

People should ask themselves why is it that they want to act.

It does not mean that in the process of a small screen, I do small acting, or if I do a big screen project, I do big acting. For the actor, it does not matter.

I had these false ambitions – marketing and MBA. I didn’t do very badly at it, but I realised my calling was something else.

If you want to grow a business, you want to make profit. Only then it is good business.

Web series is an outing that is favourable to actors.

In real life, I don’t cry too easily. I go numb.

No two love stories are the same though the love factor might be the same.

I wanted to be an actor since I was just nine-years-old.

I like to be by myself, probably because I have been a single child.

Award functions are a big sham. It’s a money-making television programme.

I don’t have the expertise in that department, I seriously lack the skill to market myself.

I’ve worked with a lot of people who have a lot of integrity towards cinema.

I was born in Kerala, where my maternal grandparents lived, and stayed there till the age of one, after which I came to Maharashtra to live with my parents and moved all around the state with my father, who worked as a superintendent in an ordnance factory.

I have expertise of performing, not promoting.

Every human being has a plethora of emotions. As an actor, we are lucky to take them out and portray onscreen. But in normal life you can’t do that. That is the charm of leading an actor’s life.

I don’t bother about awards.

Terrorism is not a sign of courage. It means cowardice.

The very idea of how chess players manipulate their game excites me.

People assume that displaying your own personal ego on screen is called acting, which is actually not what acting is about.

I have always believed that television is a very strong medium to convey stories, stronger than even movies. On television, you have more scope to explore a subject as it gives you more time.

Films are a long process and the script is the first part.

Yes, I am extremely choosy. You decide whether to do a film or not only after you meet and talk to the film-maker. Only someone who thinks out of the box excites me.

I returned to Pune in the 90s to do my MBA from the University of Pune as in that period there were not many MBA institutes in the city!

I don’t do films for charity any more. In the past, I’ve done that for friends or people who couldn’t not afford to pay. But now money matters.

A simple love story can be made into an interesting film if the film-maker can think differently.

As a kid you can sense fear, love happiness very easily.

You have to be truthful and believable in whatever you do and that is the founding principle of acting.

The city helped open my mind creatively and culturally. Pune has the power to make you realise your dream.

I don’t analyze after I’ve done a film. So I have no dream role.

I believe man is stripped naked when he’s in conversation with God. Your deepest fears, strongest desires, highest hopes – they’re all there when you are talking to God.

See, our country has certain problems. Certain psychological problems. We are dynasty lovers. We love the fact that this guy comes from this family and we start giving them concessions.

Be honest and accept it if you do not have talent. And if you do, hone your skills.

Cinema is not about wearing ‘bikni’ and showing ‘six packs’… All these are secondary.