Where is Kareena Kapoor? And has she really signed a film in which she plays a physically challenged girl - a la "Black"?

Kareena laughs loudly. "Yeah, I'm playing a deaf and mute girl in Priyadarshan's next film. But the character and the film are nothing like Rani Mukherjee and 'Black'.

"Though I'm physically challenged the film is a kind of comedy...a comedy on the vagaries of life...I'm really looking forward to working with Priyan again. I've just completed another, still untitled with him, where I pair with Salman Khan for the first time. Audiences are going to faint when they see how good Salman and I look together."

And who do you think will co-star with Kareena in Priyan's next? "Shahid," she giggles referring to boyfriend Shahid Kapoor.

"And look at the coincidence. Shahid is also with me in the other new film I've signed with Abbas-Mustan. It's a kind of romantic comedy where I get to do something I've never done before."

After "Aitraaz" and the way Priyanka Chopra walked away with all the praise isn't Kareena scared to work with Abbas-Mustan again?

"Not at all! I love working with them. In fact I was offered Priyanka's role in 'Aitraaz'. But at that point of time I was doing 'Fida' where I had a negative role. I got cold feet about doing another bad girl act. In any case I'm really, really happy for Priyanka. 'Aitraaz' totally made her career. And she deserves success."

When reminded of the mythic fights with Bipasha Basu on location for another Abbas-Mustan film, she says: "Oh, 'Ajnabee'! That's ancient. I've put that behind me. Bobby and I had also quarrelled during 'Ajnabee'. Now we're working together in Suneel Darshan's 'Dosti' though we aren't paired together."

It's Shahid whom Kareena is most excited about teaming up with. "We have one film together, 'Milenge Milenge' that's ready for release. Then Priyadarshan's and Abbas-Mustan's film '36 China Town'. I think our comfort level translates very well as on-screen chemistry. The reason 'Fida' didn't work was because audiences wanted to see us as a pair, not as enemies."

It seems like the interval in her career.

"Yeah, you can say that again. Right now I'm on voluntary retirement. My sister has been with us for some months now. My entire focus is on just one person, and it isn't Shahid. It's my little niece. Karisma, my mom and I are simply putty in her hands. She's absolutely the most important person in my life, Shahid notwithstanding."

There are important career decisions to be made.

"I'm about to sign two of the most important films of my career. I've made some serious career blunders. But all that's behind me now. I want to go into a new phase in my career with a clean heart and a positive attitude. I've become a far more positive person than I used to be. I think it's my niece's birth which has calmed me down."