Imtiaz Ali separates from wife

Love stories between directors and actresses is as old as Bollywood. Among the newer lot, Anurag Kashyap fell for and subsequently married his DevD actress Kalki Koechlin.

Then there's Sajid Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez, who we hear are well on their way to being married. Now, it seems to be the much-married Imitaz Ali's (though we hear from reliable sources that his divorce with wife Preetyhas come through) turn.

The director, who separated from his wife some time ago, has become very close to Pakistani model and actress Iman Ali, who starred in the riveting film Bol last year. Iman made her debut in another much-talked-about film Khuda KayLiye, and is the daughter of television/film actor Abid Ali and his first wife Humaira.

A source says, "Iman was introduced to the director by mutual friends in B-Town last year. Since then, they've became very close. In fact, just a day before the release of Rockstar, Imtiaz and Iman visited the Nizamuddin dargah in Delhi last year as well as in April this year."

The source adds that Imtiaz and Preety had been having problems in their marriage for over a year, and their divorce has been kept a secret as they don't want their 11-year-old daughter Ida to be affected by it. "Imtiaz and Iman's courtship has also been kept under wraps, and only a few people in the industry know about it. Preety has worked as an executive producer on several films and is looking at a full-fledged career as a director now. Apparently, a production house has already signed her on."

Despite repeated attempts, Imtiaz remained unavailable for comment.

but I think Imtiaz has a connection with breaks up heartache because you can see it in the pain of the characters. I feel even Cocktail, that's why he wanted Deepika to play Veronica and pushed her to play it even though she wanted to play Meera