By Subhash K. Jha

Mumbai, Sep 2 (IANS): For Karan Johar, the past few weeks have been very stressful. He has hardly been getting any sleep and has even put his next directorial venture on hold as he is busy with the promotions of his production "We Are Family".

Since Kajol, one of the leading ladies of the film, is on maternity leave and the other leading lady, Kareena Kapoor, had to leave for the shooting of Saif Ali Khan’s "Agent Vinod", the producer was left with no choice but to promote "We Are Family" on his own.

"I’ve completely sidelined the film I’m going to direct next. I’ve no idea what it is going to be simply because I haven’t had the time to think about it. Maybe, I’ll make 'My Name Is Karan' and cast myself in the lead," Karan says jokingly.

Karan is especially worried about "We Are Family" as it isn’t a typical mass entertainer. In fact, Karan jokingly admits that his product was intimidated by the power of machismo in the Salman Khan starrer "Dabangg".

"Yeah, we shifted two Fridays before 'Dabangg'. Ours is the kind of film that would have a gentler impact. We are not the hare, we are the tortoise. Kajol is of course the undisputed queen of the show. But Kareena will surprise you. She has given the best performance of her career and Arjun Rampal balances the fire and the passion of the two women," Karan says.

Karan’s production house will start shooting for the Imran Khan-Kareena Kapoor starrer in October.

He says that all talk of Kareena losing more weight for the film directed by Shakun Batra is "baseless".

"I never said Bebo would have to lose weight or wear ‘chaddis’ for the part, as reported. Nor is the film called 'Short Term Shaadi'. That’s just the working title and we’re changing it," he says.