Kay Kay Menon on Shekhar Home's comparisons with Sherlock Holmes: Benedict Cumberbatch never played Shekhar | Exclusive
Kay Kay Menon talks about his new show Shekhar Home, inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, and why he does not care about comparisons with Jeremy Brett or Benedict Cumberbatch
Sherlock Holmes is said to be the most adapted character in cinema. As of last count, over 110 films and TV shows have been made on the iconic detective from Baker Street, first conceptualised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This, of course, does not count the several ‘inspirations’ created from the character, newer stories and characters derived from the world of Holmes. One such story was made in India not too long ago. Shekhar Home, a Hindi OTT series, saw Kay Kay Menon play the sleuth Shekhar in a small town in West Bengal in the 90s. The actor spoke to DNA about getting under the skin of this unusual character and why comparisons with Holmes did not bother him.
Ask him how he managed to make his character stand out and not look ‘inspired’ and the veteran actor simply answers, “There is nothing in this world that hasn’t been done before. Arthur Conan Doyle created a world for that time. Taking inspiration from that, we have created a new world, new town and telling the story there. The inspiration is, of course, there but things are very rooted and everything is very Indian.”
Shekhar Home, which also stars Ranvir Shorey and Rasika Dugal, was largely shot at real locations with the production team painstakingly finding locations that mirrored the pre-mobile phone time of the 90s. All that helped Kay Kay get into character, the actor says. Explaining his process, the actor says, “My process is simple. I see how much I can limit myself in terms of domain of function. For instance, whatever the script I have, that is the truth for me. So I work within that boundary. I don’t go out of that to create some mannerism unnecessarily. The mannerism has to also apply to the character. That can only happen once you gel with the script.”
He has played cops and investigator before, as recently as Special Ops and Bambai Meri Jaan, but he does not see repetition there. “I don’t play the profession, I play the person,” he argues, adding, “So I don’t play the cop, I find out the person beneath that uniform. And I try to find that from within myself. And since no two people are exactly the same, every time it ends up being something different.”
This is precisely why Kay Kay argues that any comparison of his character Shekhar with any of the versions of Sherlock Holmes is meaningless. He says, “Shekhar has never been played before. They have played Sherlock but neither Jeremy Brett nor Benedict Cumberbatch has played Shekhar. This is a unique character and unique man. If someone were to make something using the same script, then there would be comparisons.”
Created by Aniruddha Guha and Srijit Mukherji and directed by Rohan Sippy and Mukherji, Shekhar Home also stars Kirti Kulhari, Rudranil Ghosh, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, and Shernaaz Patel. The show premiered on JioCinema on August 14.
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 "Kay Kay Menon in Shekhar Home and Benedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock")
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