by Subhash K Jha

At the moment, Priyanka Chopra isn't having too much fun.

She's down with a serious bout of flu. On Sunday, she was shooting for Dharmesh Darshan in the morning and had to perform at an awards function in the evening.

"And there's no question of cancelling. I'm petrified of being unprofessional. No matter how ill I am, I can never set aside my work."

The actress danced to a medley of tunes from Bluff Master and Barsaat. No one could guess she was burning with fever. "I had a high fever and was on antibiotics and pain killers.

That's how I got through the performances," she coughs and laughs the next morning. "My head and nose were clogged. And I had to gulp down twenty cups of coffee to keep from falling asleep while dancing. But my performance went well. That's some comfort."

She has graced the cover of international men's magazine Maxim (Indian edition). So is she the new face of India? "Naaah, I'm not!" she protests.

"Aishwarya Rai is. Look at her beauty and popularity! It crosses geo-political boundaries. I've a long way to go before I can be considered the face of India. I'm just a hard-working, 23-year-old. When they asked me to be on their cover, I was quite surprised. But of course I was happy about it."

It was a touching moment when Priyanka's recuperating father joined her at the mahurat of Dharmesh Darshan's Aap Ki Khatir on Saturday. The shooting started immediately.

And Akshaye Khanna found himself another admirer. "He's so spontaneous on camera and so much fun as a person!" Priyanka can't stop raving about Akshaye Khanna, "I think I'm going to have a ball shooting for this film."

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