The darker ,murkier side of bollywood.

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Hot-shot filmmaker Aditya Chopra has filed for divorce (Agencies Photo)

MUMBAI: He made the hugely popular Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and the not so brilliant Mohabbatein , soared at the box office with Dhoom and Chak De , and is now all set to direct Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi .

But finally, hot-shot film producer and sometime director Aditya Chopra's penchant for romance on the big screen may get a legal entry into his real life this May.

Movie mogul Yash Chopra's son is finally on his way to ending his marriage with Payal Khanna and perhaps making a new beginning with current beau, actress Rani Mukherjee.

Chopra's films may have a rambling, leisurely feel, but the mutual consent petition he filed a couple of months back is a crisp two-page affair. There's no storyline here.

As the law requires, it merely says that the husband and wife have irreconcilable differences and want out.

Their married life of five-odd years is headed nowhere, they have told the family court in Bandra. The mandatory six-month cooling-off period required after filing a mutual consent divorce petition will get over this May for the producer.

It took three joint meetings with their lawyer for the two to set their divorce process in motion. Their lawyer advised them and they agreed not to mention the terms of settlement in the court documents, opting instead for an out-of-court arrangement. As there are no children involved, heartache is at a minimum.

Aditya's family is not too happy with his decision. Family sources say that his parents love their daughter-in-law and would like to take care of her even after the formal split. She has, in any case, been given a spacious home in Juhu and her bank balance has been augmented by several crores. Yash Raj Studios, which has churned out blockbusters and is worth an estimated Rs 1,000 crore, owes its success to the 36-year-old Aditya's brains.

The quiet, soft-spoken producer prefers to keep a low profile in the media and his interviews are hard to come by.

Aditya's marriage, it is believed, started falling apart about two years ago. In the first half of 2006 he almost moved out of his house, said sources close to the family. Better known as Adi in the film industry, he returned from the outdoor shoot of Karan Johar's film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna but instead of going home checked into a five-star hotel.

An adamant Adi had insisted then that he would not come home, even as his parents tried to reason with him. He apparently wanted Payal to move out of the house before he returned home. He even allegedly threatened to start his own production house, said industry sources. Payal then decided to move to Singapore for sometime so that Aditya would return home and work.

The sprawling and swanky Yash Raj Films studio at Andheri link road with its state-of-the-art set up has apparently been designed by Payal. She had worked relentlessly for years to put up the new YRF studio.