He wears a cotton vest, a towel wrapped around his waist and a wet, dejected look. Hair all tousled, he runs his long fingers over his morose face as a melancholic song plays in the background.

The next moment actor Kay Kay Menon is seated on the edge of a chair. He squints as he peers into the small screen to take a good look at the shot that he has just executed. He exudes intensity — something that has now become his hallmark.

The vest and the towel help. Menon’s well-toned physique — he is a regular at his gym, and loves cricket and badminton — explains why he has been described as the ‘intellectual woman’s sex symbol’.

Menon, in Calcutta to shoot for Anjan Dutt’s Hindi film, BBD, doesn’t quite mind that, though he has some problems with the adjective. “I’d like to correct that,” he says with a grin. “I’d rather be an intelligent woman’s sex symbol. Intellectual is boring. It’s utopian. Intelligence is practical and I believe that all women are intelligent and therefore I’d like to consider myself as every woman’s sex symbol,” he says. And then he goes on to add — lest he should be taken for a glorious toy-boy — “But that’s in terms of both my work and personality.”

It’s difficult to tell when the actor in Menon takes over from the man himself. At our first meeting, we are not quite sure if he is putting on an act or being his natural self. As he steps out of the make-up van parked on Hindustan Road in south Calcutta and slumps into a chair with a cigarette in hand, he seems lost in thought. Off screen, the actor — now in a kurta and pyjamas — seems more like a character from a low key, sensitive film that relies on actors rather than on stars. The contrary, perhaps, is as true: on screen he is as natural and believable.

“I rely on the script, the director’s inputs, my imagination and instinct. If I were to look at others for guidance, for instance, while playing a Bengali guy in Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd, it would have been mannerism shopping more than anything else,” he says, taking a drag on his cigarette, which seems perpetually stuck between his fingers. “I smoke only 20 a day,” he says sheepishly, but adds, a trifle optimistically, “I may lose the appetite for it one day just like I lost the appetite for drinking 10 years ago.”

Chain smoker or not, he has never let smoke get into his eyes. That’s probably why it’s been over a couple of years since Menon has seen a black Friday. All his recent films have had a good run at the box office. Married to his job as an actor for over a decade, Menon — a Malayalee brought up in Pune — is now on a well-deserved honeymoon. Versatility is his forte. Be it as a cop in a moral dilemma in Black Friday, a scrupulous corporate guy in Corporate or a power-hungry son wanting to usurp his father’s place in Sarkar — he plays it all with ease. Anurag Basu’s Metro, co-starring Shilpa Shetty, is set to release three weeks down the line and the actor is all geared up for Makarand Deshpande’s Dream Man where he will essay multiple roles a la the late Sanjeev Kumar in Naya Din Nayi Raat.

Menon seems a little more relaxed when we meet the next day. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the presence of his “unofficial guru” Naseeruddin Shah who is also a part of the BBD cast. Shah looks dignified in a striped suit and tie while Menon lives his role, dressed in the uniform of the Kolkata Police. “I have worked with him very closely and have observed him work,” he says reverentially of Shah.

The two actors came together with the play Mahatma vs Gandhi, which ran to rave reviews nearly nine years ago. Menon was a convincing Harilal in the play, and Shah, a resolute Gandhi. Those were the days when Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai was Menon’s favourite hangout. But although he has been acting on stage since he was nine, he never thought of taking it up as a profession.

That happened much later — after he secured a management degree in marketing from Pune University and followed it up with a stint in corporate film making. That was when he literally woke up one day to pay heed to his calling — acting — and for a while became a “pauper by choice”. The journey from stage to celluloid, Menon holds, has been “wholesome” but today Menon prefers doing cinema. “The camera is the symbol of the audience and can see your soul,” he reasons.

Interestingly, Menon was born on the same day as the Mahatma — October 2. But he is cagey about his year of birth. “Shah Rukh Khan can’t help himself so he has to reveal his age. I can,” he smiles politely. “Growing old is mandatory so any fictional age suits me fine. I think growing up is what matters. I can only say I have grown up.”

That’s quite evident. Today Menon regards acting as “fun” and is “dispassionately passionate” about it. But it wasn’t that way from the start. “I am enjoying myself as an actor. I try and have fun in every film. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But yes, once my job as an actor is over, I am indifferent to the project because thereafter things are not in my control,” he rationalises. Menon has learnt the hard way — his first film Paanch, on young men and crime, never saw the light of day.

Pity, for he was satisfied with his role in the Anurag Kashyap film. Among his other rewarding performances are those in Mahatma vs Gandhi, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Sarkar and Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. Menon may not have done an out-and-out commercial film but he is game for it. “There is no reason to shy away from it. But to be able to dance like Hrithik Roshan or Govinda, one would have to be a born dancer,” he admits frankly. Dancing spontaneously with some minimum guidance from Farah Khan — as he did in Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd. — is more his style.

The actor doesn’t believe in idols. “The moment you idolise a person, you restrict yourself. So I try to be inspired by facets of their characters,” he says. Besides Shah, other actors from whom he draws inspiration are Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Balraj Sahni, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and Shammi Kapoor. He strongly believes that every role has its own destiny and goes to the person who is supposed to play it.

Talking of destiny, the actor was destined to be Bengal’s jamaibabu, in the same way as Bengalis have accepted Amitabh Bachchan within the folds of their community. Menon’s wife of five years, TV and stage actress Nivedita Bhattacharya, is a Bengali brought up in Lucknow. He sums up their love story in a line: “When we were doing theatre, we started out as friends and then love happened.” His response to marriage is as hackneyed, though uttered with the conviction of a fine actor. “Marriage has brought stability to my life. Earlier I went back to a house, now I go back to a home.”

Menon, however, has strong likes and dislikes. Fish is a strict no-no for him. And so is karela (bitter gourd). “I am not a foodie. I eat to live and can eat anything cooked with a little bit of love and care.” He underlines his faith in God and his belief in rituals. “I pray every day but I don’t do business with God or seek Him out when I am down.”

He also stresses that he is not an exhibitionist and has fun with only those he knows. He recalls how, once on the sets of Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., he went around for a few days pretending he was high on drugs. His co-star Raima Sen and the others of the unit were certain he was on Ecstasy. It was only later that they realised he was putting on an act.

He now prepares for another act. The shot is ready and Menon is geared to share camera space with Shah. They climb the stairs of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce building rehearsing their parts. It seems to be reminiscent of Menon’s own arduous climb up his career ladder. But today he is finally living up to his self-rechristened name. His parents — simple folk from Kerala — had another name for him, but Menon has long buried that. He named himself Kay Kay, which in Mandarin means victory.