/> After being more or less image-bound as a 'serious' actor K K Menon is finally breaking loose.

Not only does he get to do comedy and to sing and dance in Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, he's all set to play a full-on filmy character in Tigmanshu Dhulia's next film.

Says KK, "I've heard the basic narration of Tigmanshu Dhulia's film. I like the character's filmy quality. He's flamboyant, opportunistic and slightly evil. Quite larger than life.

Though in one of my earliest flicks Hansal Mehta's Chhal I played a Mission Impossible kind of spy with loads of stunts to perform, Tigmanshu's film would be my first really big somersault into the commercial language. I think I can swing it," he smiles modestly.

As for the comedy he did in Honeymoon Travels... "Of course I did comedy for the first time. But it isn't the making-faces kind of comedy that's in vogue these days. I CAN do that variety of in-your-face farce. But I wouldn't like to let it all hang out on screen."

KK is now shooting for Anurag Basu's Metro. "It's a fascinating role and I'm cast opposite Shilpa Shetty and Kangana. Thoough I haven't seen Anurag's Gangster I've worked with him on television several years ago.

I'm aware of his capabilities," asserts KK who took television seriously long before it became fashionable to do so. "Television back then offered the kind of challenges for me that have now come into vogue in cinema."

Tongue firmly in cheek KK is flattered by the 'Thinking Woman's Sex Symbol' tag that he has acquired after Madhur Bhandarkar's Corporate. "Better to be the thinking woman's sex symbol than the unthinking woman...

I enjoyed the attention that I got post-Corporate. Suddenly I was seen in a different light. Which is good. But I'm not here to win any race. I'd rather walk briskly than run through my career."

Over the years KK has learnt his lessons well. "My first film Anurag Kashyap's Paanch never got released. I learnt to just do my work to the best of my abilities and then move on. You can't be hanging on to a project after your job (namely acting) is done. In that sense I've become more practical." He pauses to ponder, and then says, "By now the industry is aware of my abilities. There's no need to hard-sell myself. Those filmmakers who need me will come to me. I'd rather focus my energies on doing the films I believe in.

I also find it emotionally and physically liberating to play games like cricket and badmington. Some people spend so much time dreaming of their own perfect world that they forget to live their dreams. I'd rather live my dreams, no matter how incomplete they are."