Katrina finally seems to be getting away from Salman's shadow. The year 2007 was indeed special for Katrina as she is the only actress to achieve four back-to-back successes in the year in Namastey London, Apne, Partner and Welcome.

Today she has become the highest paid item girl in the industry paid a whopping 1.5 crore to shimmy in Shree Ashtavinayak's next film Blue.

The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Akshay Kumar and Lara Dutta in lead roles.

We hear, when the production house asked her to do an item number, Kaif initially refused, as she doesn't want the label of an item girl.

But when the makers agreed to pay her a 1.5 crore fee and offered a few more scenes, the actress accepted.

However, Balaji people were not that lucky. When they approached Katrina to do an item number for their next, C Company, the actress flatly turned it down. Money, of course, was the bone of contention. Balaji was not willing to shell out that kind of money.

But being an item with a fat pay cheque is not what she all wants, she wants to share space with someone like Hrithik.

"I don't know if I would get an opportunity to work with him so early in my career, but he is one actor I would love to work with, no questions asked," she tells.

"The way he put his heart and soul into the character of Akbar left me speechless. I'm looking forward to working with Hrithik sometime soon."

Of course, she is also in for an image makeover, so it is bye bye girl next doot and hello sexy siren phase for Katrina.

But this change is not just confined to her professional life. She is also delibrately distancing herself from Salman.

So when someone from media asked her Salman Khan and his ongoing flings with Brazilian supermodel Bruna Abdalah and Mahek Chahal Kat just pounced on the poor guy saying," You know, you guys need to learn that when someone is standing before you, you have to treat that person with respect."

"It's a ridiculous question, ridiculous. You guys need to learn to draw the line," she added before walking away in a huff.