Meanwhile, the tall and lanky Kay Kay is waiting to corner his share of the limelight. His chameleon-like personality has already set Mumbai's preview circuit abuzz. The otherwise soft-spoken guy plays a completely contrasting, dark character—the radical, aggressive Luke, lead singer of the rock group Parasites in the forthcoming film Paanch—touted by cine buffs as a cult noir film of our times."It opened a new spectrum, made me explore sides I didn't have," says Kay Kay. "He's an actor who can change his face, personality, body language...he becomes the character," raves director Anurag Kashyap.

Born in Kerala and brought up in Maharashtra, Kay Kay, an MBA, left a coveted manager's job in a Dadar office to join Mumbai's bustling theatre circuit. His most celebrated role has been that of Gandhi's son Harilal, in Feroz Khan's celebrated play Mahatma vs Gandhi. On TV, he's played a lead role in Zee serial Pradhan Mantri and also a psychotic in the short telefilm, Last Train to Mahakali. After doing roles in Saeed Mirza's Naseem and Mahesh Mathai's Bhopal Express, Paanch is the big break he's looking forward to. Despite his background in theatre, Kay Kay strongly believes that an actor shouldn't apply the same rules for the two mediums. "Theatre can give the actor an ego, a know-all attitude," he says. His theory is to never try and impress the camera. "The camera can see even more than the director.One should become oblivious of it or else one ends up hamming on screen," he says.

Director Hansal Mehta admires Kay Kay's commitment to the film. "He is a selfless actor. He doesn't hog scenes," he says. "He has no insecurity, he looks at a film very objectively," says Kashyap.

Kay Kay's next is Kashyap's Gulal, a film about innocent people getting caught in the maelstrom of ruthless politics. He plays a cop in Chhal but not the regular angry, macho inspector. "I didn't want to do a Sunny Deol who bashes up 50 people. I wanted a believable cop," says director Mehta. Kay Kay has also done all the action sequences himself. "I have tried to extend myself physically," he says. In Sudhir Mishra's new film, Hazaaron Khwahishen Aisee, which spans the Emergency era, he is a young man just out of college with a strong revolutionary zeal who eventually becomes a Naxalite

Kay Kay too doesn't want to remain a "small budget protagonist anymore". But does he have a future with a name like Kay Kay? Pat comes the answer: "Even Amitabh Bachchan is a queer name. Moreover, Kay Kay in Chinese means victory."