Akshaye- Ajay-Priyadarshan thriller called "Smile"?

It's that time of the year when Akshaye Khanna emerges from his cocoon to talk to the media. His next film Short Kut: The Con is On releases next month. The otherwise reclusive actor is in a mood to chat today and admits that he’s had to make that extra bit of effort. “I’m not much of a public relations guy. People often misconstrue this for attitude but I’m not comfortable reading about myself in the papers every morning. And partying is out of the question since a room full of people makes me nervous as hell,” he says with sincere candour.

His only release this year Short Kut comes after the 2008 blockbuster Race and his brooding laugh-a-minute apperance in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck by Chance where he played himself. When reminded, he laughs a hearty one, adding, “Oh yes, that was a good one. But then, I can do anything for Zoya. I’ve known her since Dil Chahta Hai days when she was a baby.”

Associations seem to play a big role in the 35-year-old’s life. His last film, Mere Baap Pehle Aap, was his third with Priyadarshan and will be followed by Smile, co-starring Ajay Devgan. After the success of Race, Khanna has signed up for Anees Bazmee’s No Problem which goes on floors this year-end. And with Short Kut, he will have featured in both the films under Anil Kapoor Productions banner. But the actor denies his friendship as being the sole reason for his having done Short Kut. “Anil is a good friend but that aside, he’s also a responsible filmmaker and his first duty is to let the casting for his movie be fair and sound,” he justifies.

However, in the film he plays a struggling filmmaker who acts quite contrary to the viewpoint Khanna has just expressed. “The film uses Bollywood as the backdrop and while I play a writer-director, Arshad (Warsi) is a struggling actor and both of us are ready to adopt any means to become successful,” he explains. But Khanna makes it clear that unlike the usual spoofs on the industry, this one doesn’t subscribe to stereotypes. “It’s an entertainer and brings together two of the industry’s best writers — Neeraj Vohra and Anees Bazmee.”

His intense Siddharth Sinha act in Dil Chahta Hai redefined his career as an actor, but Khanna has on his profile a fair bit of comic acts. So we ask him if that’s where he has established his niche. But the question ticks him off. “You need to merely look at the work I’ve done and you’ll have your answer,” he quips. “If I did just comedy, it would be extremely restricting and get very boring. I am not choosing comedy over anything else in fact, I am no more picky than anyone else in the industry, I just choose the best of what I get offered,” says the actor.