He is like Banquo’s ghost. Hovering over the conversation, unnamed, yet palpable. At the outset, however, the instructions are clear. The spokesperson for Yashraj Films warns me that she will not be answering any personal questions. She is the hazel-eyed heart throb Rani Mukherji, and the instruction is an obvious reference to Ms Mukherji’s romantic linkup with the scion of YRF — He Who Must Not be Named — that has been making headlines. But now Ms Mukerji’s new film Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (TPTM) is to release at the end of the month and she is giving interviews as part of its media promotion.

We are quite happy to follow orders. After all, Ms Mukherji is one of the few actors who does not have a secretary and is ultra professional. A few SMS requests to her personal number for an interview actually yields a callback from TPTM’s producers, the requests having been forwarded to YRF which set up an appointment. It’s all very agreeable.

The sprawling YRF studio in suburban Mumbai has an expansive split level foyer with a lone, polite receptionist. The actress is waiting, she indicates pointing skyward. Her hands curled around the paling, Mukherji looks down from the first floor, the mistress of all she surveys. The studio spokesperson next to her says that the allotted time of 20 minutes begins now — there are several other interviews, including phone-ins, lined up.

We sit in a mini conference room. Mukherji is dressed in white trousers and a white cotton shirt with lace trims, a broad belt around her waist. Holding a box of what looks like roasted munchies that she keeps tossing into her mouth, she sits much like the girl next door, with her face scrubbed of warpaint and her hair caught in a ponytail. Her light eyes are her obvious asset, as is, her strangely engaging ‘don’t mess with me’ demeanour.

Her earthiness is matched by her self-professed feistiness. It comes from her parents. Her confidence comes from being part of a loving family. “My mom is a fighter. Like her, I cannot be intimidated. My confidence and strength I get from her, my patience and meticulousness from my dad, who is angelic,” she smiles.

Mukherji’s father, Ram, used to direct films. Her mother, Krishna, a singer, coaxed her daughter to be an actress. She believed her daughter could be an actress, right from childhood when the Mukherji clan would host the Durga Puja plays in which Rani would participate. “Shomu kaka, Kajol’s father, who passed away recently, used to tell my dad, ‘See, she will be an actress one day.’” So too did Salim uncle, who offered her first film, who kept faith even through a disastrous screen test. “There is something in her face,” he reassured Krishna Mukherji.

She had an added advantage over many slinky long-legged wannabes: the camera loved her. “There are so many good-looking people but the camera just does not love them. There are others whom the camera adores and loves. Those people are quite fortunate,” she acknowledges.

In TPTM , she is ‘Geeta, the angel who could not love’. “There has never been a film with an angel’s role in, I think, 20-30 years. The character of an angel drew me to this film. It was also a challenge because it came close to be being an action film, which I have never done before. I was harnessed and I had to ‘fly’. It was very exciting. It is a very sweet and simple story, a feel-good, happy film,” says Mukherji who pairs up with Saif Ali Khan. Director Kunal Kohli completes the successful Hum Tum trio hoping to pull off an encore for YRF, although the previous Khan-Mukherji outing for YRF, Ta Ra Rum, came a cropper.

“It’s all a matter of perception and you cannot defy perception,” Mukherji retorts. Ta Ra Rum did not flop but the media apparently wrote it off as one just as they build up films that are not a success, she explains. “What matters to me is you go and work with like-minded people and enjoy your work. The memories that stay with you at the end of the shoot are what matters at the end of a good film. And TRRP was a good film, just not as big a hit as Yashraj’s previous release Dhoom,” she says, dipping into her munchies.

Her next film for which shooting will begin in August is again for Yashraj, to be directed by newcomer Anurag Singh. In it Rani Mukherji plays a cricketer and is taking cricketing lessons. Who from? “I cannot give those details,” she retreats, adding instead, “My coach told me that many parents don’t allow their girls to play cricket because they will become dark!” Mukherji laughs. In the yet untitled film, she is cast opposite Jab We Met charmer Shahid Kapur.

Has she seen this unexpected chartbuster? Would she have liked to have played Geet, the iconic role that won Kareena Kapoor many awards? “That’s a stupid question for a journalist like you to ask”, she admonishes. She has been “blessed with a variety of fantastic roles, and I am quite content with what I have done” with that of Michelle McNally in Black, holding pride of place. “It just happened. Magically. I don’t know how I did it. I told Sanjay (Leela Bhansali, director) I could never do it again,” says Mukherji, who learnt sign language to play the part of the blind-deaf girl. Barring Black, Mukherji believes she gives her best when she is spontaneous rather than rehearsed: it all comes to her on the first day of the shooting, it just flows.

Which is why she believes it is important to work with people one is comfortable with — the rapport is important for a give-and-take working relationship.

Mukherji was 18 when she debuted in Raja Ki Ayegi Baraat opposite Amjad ‘Gabbar’ Khan’s son in 1996, in which she plays a rape victim forced to marry her rapist. “I was too young to understand the seriousness of the role. It was not a very appropriate subject for a newcomer but there was no thought on my part behind it. I did what my director told me to. From the time I gave my first mahurat shot to this day, there is an ease in front of the camera that comes naturally. It was like magic,” she recalls. The film tanked but her performance was noticed.

She tasted real success with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with Shah Rukh Khan and cousin Kajol in 1998. The same year, Aamir Khan, whose autograph she had taken as a child, crooned Aati Kya Khandala to her in Ghulam and there was no turning back. Mukherji remains close to both her heroes, acknowledging her debt as a newcomer to these two stars.

“Aamir literally taught me how to romance on screen. I used to be so shy. In aankhon se tooney yeh kya keh diya. He would say, Rani, look up, look into my eyes, connect before the shot starts, not after action. Even today they are like proud daddies for me,” Mukherji’s trademark husky laughter breaks out. Years later, her onscreen kiss with Aamir Khan in The Rising became a talking point in the film. One of the few independent-minded actresses to kiss onscreen, Mukherji now has decided not to.

“Right now I don’t think I would do a film with a kissing scene,” she says. “I don’t feel comfortable doing it now. What has changed? Probably, because I don’t think kissing scenes can do too much for our films. It’s not like in the West where kissing scenes just happen as part of the film. I have not felt very comfortable watching my kissing scenes and if I am not comfortable probably someone else may not be either. I don’t think there has been a kiss in my films which has changed the dynamics of the film. The kind of films I am doing are more entertainment-oriented that don’t need kissing scenes,” she says firmly.

Can’t be anything to do with He Who Must Not Be Named, can it, the thought springs unbidden. After all, sudden demureness is the clue to actors in a committed relationship in tinsel town.

“Ya, ya, ya, who’s it?” she yells out suddenly as someone looking lost walks by. It’s the next interviewer.

Time’s up, the spokesperson appears. But there are so many more questions, I quaver. “Quick, quick, ask,” Mukherji says briskly. That voice now raved about, how was it received? “From being told it sounded like a toad or a frog, it went to be one of the sexiest voices in the Hindi film industry,” she says businesslike. “Next question.”

Playtime pursuits? It’s all work, work, and work for the moment.

Friendships gone sour?

“Not a valid question for this interview. Any more clarifications?” she asks with a straight face.

For all the guys who want to line up and marry Rani Mukherji, she says they’d have to wait a long time. “I have just finished making my house and I want to enjoy living there. It’s taken me three years to build. It’s my home for myself, my parents and my family. I am going to be in it for a long time,” she emphasises.

No marriage? “Not at all. Thank you!” As we wrap it up, she relaxes a tad. She is hard pressed for time, shob dates daoa hoye gechey.

Still, it has been fun keeping to the rules. Let HWMNBN remain so. It’s fun to fence and walk away without asking those personal questions. The news will out someday. Let Banquo’s ghost pace a little longer.