Mad about him

36 China Town will be Kareena Kapoor's second film with boyfriend Shahid Kapur

Kareena Kapoor has mellowed down. Which is just as well, for she does not have much to be vitriolic about. Her last hit was Yuva, which was released in 2004.

The rest - Dev, Fida and Hulchul - have been flops. Aitraaz (2004), you ask? It was a Priyanka Chopra film. Even Kapoor admits that, though there is a catch.

"Although Priyanka deserved all the credit she got, Abbas-Mastan (the director duo for Aitraaz) offered me Priyanka's role. As it had negative shades, I refused,"says Kapoor.

But two years hence, Kapoor is least afraid of box office duds and hits because she is in love. The world knows that the actress and Shahid Kapur are in love.

Kapoor and Kapur play a couple in reel life in their current release, Subhash Ghai's 36 China Town. The Abbas-Mastan directed film will be Kapoor's third film with the director duo after Ajnabee and Aitraaz.

"It is a romantic comedy with a thriller element," says Kapoor. But she does not say much else about the film.

However, she is willing to tell us that 36 China Town is very different from Fida and hopes that audiences would not compare the films as Fida was a flop even though it had Kapoor and Kapur.

"The audiences want to see Shahid and me as a pair and not as foes, which is what Fida portrayed. 36 China Town see us as a pair. It should work," says Kapoor.

The actress will next be seen in Priyadarshan's thriller Chup Chup Ke where she is paired once again with Kapur. She plays a deaf and mute girl in the film.
She also has Satish Kaushik's Milenge Milenge that is scheduled for a June release. The lead actor? You can't be wrong. Kapur.

Catty about Kareena

• Kareena loves horse riding and cooking
  
• Kareena has been known to reject films that have become box office successes. She walked out of Kaho Na Pya Hai in 1999 in favour of JP Dutta's Refugee. Kaho Na Pyaar Hai was a hit and launched Hrithik Roshan and Amisha Patel to stardom, while Refugee - which launched her and Abhishek Bachchan - was a flop. She then turned down Nikhil Advani's hit film Kal Ho Na Ho (2003) for Sooraj Barjatya's flop show Mein Prem Ki Deewani Hoon.
  
• Kareena will play Desdemona in Vishal Bhardwaj's Omkara, his interpretation of Shakespeare's Othello.