“I’m not much of a public relations guy.

People often misconstrue this as 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 candidly.

His only release this year, Short Kut comes after the 2008 blockbuster Race and his brooding laugh-a-minute appearance in Zoya Akhtar’s Luck by Chance where he played himself.

“Oh yes, that was a good one,” he laughs.

“But then, I can do anything for Zoya. I’ve known her since the 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 yearend.With Short Kut and Gandhi, My Father, Khanna will have featured in both the films made by Anil Kapoor Productions. In Short Kut, he plays a struggling filmmaker.

“The film uses Bollywood as the backdrop. 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 says.

But Khanna makes it clear that unlike the usual spoofs on the industry, this one doesn’t subscribe to stereotypes: “It will be a thorough entertainer.”

His intense Siddharth Sinha act in Dil Chahta Hai redefined his career as an actor, but Khanna has done 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.