MUMBAI: Katrina Kaif’s latest pastime is playing mind games with the media. Her next two films — Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and Prakash Jha’s Rajniti (for which she is currently shooting in Bhopal) are with Ranbir Kapoor but Katrina will lead you on a merry dance before she even discusses Ranbir as a co-star. The reason for her reluctance to discuss Ranbir, Bollywood’s hottest property at this point, is simple: she is still struggling to come clean on being nothing more than his co-star. The media link-ups have definitely made it awkward for KK to even address Ranbir in a casual manner.

That predicament be as it may, Katz is definitely rocking in her professional career. Excited at the way her songs in APKGK are looking, she says, “This film which is whacky, was to come in May, unfortunately the multiplex strike has pushed it to November. Now like eager school kids we are awaiting our turn to get on the release bus. With every film I’ve become jumpy and nervous. I await each release with a kind of nervous energy that I didn’t know I had. I’ve finally found my feet in Bollywood and now I’m able to enjoy each release as a versatile performer.’’

The film, she feels, gave her a chance to explore her comic timing. And after the success of New York, Katz is confident this film will prove to be one more feather in her cap. When she can’t escape talking about Ranbir, Katz weighs her words very carefully and says, “We’re all aesthetic people. Ranbir and I make a nice looking couple so the reactions from the industry have been positive. He is someone who matches my obsession and my energy on the set. I have extra exuberance (that is sometimes unnecessary) and since Ranbir is in my own age bracket, he can match my enthusiasm. It’s a kind of a competition between the two of us. And, I can tell you, Ranbir is a little more enthusiastic than all his co-stars put together as far as his work goes. He is totally dedicated to cinema.’’

On Diwali, Katrina will also have been in a seven-minute appearance in Anthony D’Souza’s Blue and then in a fleeting romantic mode with her favourite co-star Akshay Kumar in Priyadarshan’s De Dhana Dhan. While she makes it clear that Blue is a guest appearance, she says, “De Dhana Dhan is something I did for Akshay. His energy levels are unmatchable.’’ For some strange reasons, her thoughts fly to a desert number with Akki in Singh is Kingg. “The heat was like a thousand degrees,’’ she recalls. “It was hard to breathe. Yet Akshay doing the song with total intensity; it was as if he was unmindful of the hard sun beating down on us. When I saw that I said, ‘God, I can’t be matching his energy with anything less... so I gave it my 200 per cent also.’’