In the frenetic and exhausting dance of Bollywood films, his footwork has been dangerously slow. Despite the Vinod Khanna legacy, the collateral network and brother, Akshaye's professional standing, the languid actor is taking his own time coming to terms with the masala movies. GEETA RAO keeps a date with the lesser known, but equally charming, Rahul Khanna.

He walks into the minimalist bar at Indigo in South Mumbai, dressed elegantly in black jeans and striped shirt, looking younger than his 32 years. But he exudes a sophisticated assurance as he orders a martini. "With Bombay Sapphire," he specifies. Very posh. Then he smiles his lazy, languid, heartbreakingly lopsided smile that bespeaks both arrogance and vulnerability and I find myself instantly distracted from the task of throwing searing and incisive questions up into the chic Indigo airspace.

There is something about actor, Rahul Khanna, that makes Meera, the very cool 20-something stylist at the uber trendy Juice, at Bandra in suburban Mumbai, say thoughtfully, "Rahul is different, he's got class." Whatever that intangible, indefinable word means, if Meera, the blonde-streaked Pali Hill 'It Girl', says so, it should be taken seriously. She defines the new audience that Rahul must carry with him as he makes his serious foray into the world of mainstream Hindi cinema. His oeuvre has been interesting but sporadic at best. The face of MTV-Asia for four years, a dream debut as Hassan in Deepa Mehta's Earth, a masala mix as Rahul in Bollywood-Hollywood, a walk-on part in Spike Lee's 3 AM, a short role in the Kevin Kline-starrer, The Emperor's Club, an off-Broadway theatre stint in East is East. An eminently forgettable role in Bawandar and a quiet retreat for a couple of years. In the frenetic and exhausting dance of Bollywood films, Rahul's footwork has been dangerously slow. There is an approach-avoidance to Bollywood that he has worked on and is now coming to terms with. "For a long time," he says slowly, "Hindi movies were a void." It could have been the fact that as a kid, Bollywood was kept away or it could have been the fact that he is an intensely private person or it could be the timing. At the time of his debut it was the Govinda school of drama, pre-crossover Bollywood, that set the rules and Rahul's geographical spread - Malabar Hill, New York, and Singapore - was definitely not suited for the journey.

New York is where his defining moments have been. His actor's training, his first MTV break, his theatre run, his network of friends. You sense that he may have left more behind in NYC than he is willing to let on. "I have had relationships in various degrees," he says, after very deep thought. Yeah, right. For a New Yorker and ex-MTV VJ, his sound bytes are really edgy! He backtracks, he sidetracks, he won't tell. Finally an emphatic, "I do not have a girlfriend or any significant person in my life right now." But the sizzling on-screen chemistry between him and Nandita Das in Earth and Lisa Ray in Bollywood-Hollywood, speak of a wealth of passion and intensity that says there's more to Rahul than meets the eye. "Nandita is a bully," he says with a gleam his eye; "she just bullied me into those scenes". Hmm. "But Deepa Mehta," he grins, "is my first love. When she offered me Earth, I thought I had died and gone to heaven."

He speaks little of his mom, Gitanjali, but his softened face speaks volumes. "We live together," he says, a shade protectively, "my mom, my brother and I." He is more reticent about dad, actor, Vinod Khanna, who lives close by. As for his younger sibling, "Akshaye is my guide…he is the one who draws maps to get me to the studios since I am still finding my way around. And he tells me who's who in the film industry." Yes, he watches Akshaye's films and he loved him in Hulchul. But it is clear that while father, Vinod, may have been an earlier generation's swoon song and brother, Akshaye, is drawing rave reviews for his recent performances, Rahul is his own person. You see flashes of that right through the buzz-filled evening. He admires Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Arshad Warsi and Phillipe Seymour. Not the big action heroes but urban, witty, intelligent, post-modern heroes.

Talk to him about theatre and he lights up. Considering he has only had one big role, is he faking this great enthusiasm for the theatre? "No, I am not," he says indignantly. An eyebrow arches aristocratically. He resents my accusation. He 'loved' his East is East role, 'loved' frying chips on stage for all the hours the role required and 'loved' the good press he got. It was a moment in time that everything seemed to work for him. Earth, happened, auditions came by, the 'colour blind' casting that theatre and Hollywood was trying to follow gave Asian actors hope. "But", he says, with a touch of wistfulness for a way of life he has had to let go of, "9/11 really did change a lot of things."

Why has it taken him so long to loop back into Bollywood? He smiles his lopsided smile, "Before you win, you have to surrender," he says, quoting philosophically from the book, Shantaram. Just go, just accept, and just be. And it's working for him. If Bawandar was dismissed with a terse "I didn't have fun," now there is no more agitation at systems going haywire, long waits and scripts that unravel even as they are bound. Now he's Bollywood mainstream, all guns blazing, full-on, in the Vikram Bhatt-directed Elaan where he plays a businessman who is looking to revenge his father's murder. "I enjoyed Elaan," he says cheerfully. He's just shot a commercial for Lays with Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta and he's had a blast. Ummm, that smile again. There is both an intensity and a sophistication about Rahul that could be moulded in the hands of a good director into the tradition of the great romantic heroes. But he has to let himself go, to reach out both as a person and an actor, in order to project himself on a larger scale. The boy who roller bladed along the banks of the Hudson in NYC or gleamed the curves and loops of LA's freeways may have to bring the same sense of freedom and passion to his evolution into a Bollywood actor. Something about Rahul Khanna says that he will.