B town buzz: Arjun Rampal & Sussanne's growing friendship Pg 2

Bollywood's golden couple Hrithik and Sussanne Roshan have decided to end their 17-year-long relationship. Hrithik announced the split from his wife in a terse statement released from Los Angeles where the star is vacationing solo. It left no ambiguity about who had left whom. "Sussanne has decided to separate from me and end our 17-year-long relationship," he wrote about the end of his fairytale marriage before assuring his fans that he still had "faith in the institution of marriage."

While the announcement came as a shock to his legions of fans, Bollywood insiders were not exactly unaware of the trouble brewing in the relationship. Sussanne had moved out of the family home in Juhu with their two sons about four months ago but the separation was kept a secret as the Roshans did not want anything to divert attention from Krissh 3, the child-friendly family franchise that has since gone on to make over Rs 200 crore though the producers claim larger, unsubstantiated profits. At that time the Roshans had tried to downplay Sussanne's move out of the marital home saying she had gone to her parents' home to spend time with her ailing father. Few knew then that Sussanne moved out of Sanjay Plaza, her father's home after just ten days into her own flat in Andheri, close to the Charcoal Project the mammoth home interiors emporium that she runs.

Frantic efforts by the couple's friends to end the estrangement were in vain. Sources cite several reasons why a reconciliation does not seem possible, one of which is Sussanne's terminal boredom with her husband who, she felt, had become obsessed with his career and his undeniable good looks. The wife felt neglected.

While rumours of an open marriage has been dodging the couple for some time with names of other equally beautiful people like Barbara Mori and Arjun Rampal adding to a sizzling narrative of a marriage unraveling, the final nail comes in the form of a rather mundane familial trouble: saas-bahu friction.

Friends of the couple close to the development told this newspaper that Sussanne wanted Hrithik to move out of the family home Palazzio in Juhu but the star was not keen to leave his parents and his divorced sister. Not that Sussanne had to share a small flat with caviling in-laws. The couple had their own independent floor but the escalating tensions between the bahu and the in-laws would not be contained in that building, and culminated with a blazing row between Sussane and Pinky Mum-inlaw Roshan some days ago leading to this denoucement.

Our source says, "The marriage has had it's share of ups and downs in the past when Hrithik was linked to his Kites costar Barbara Mori. Sussanne had moved into a plush five-star hotel in the vicinity saying that their home was infested with termites. But she went back home that time after Barbara returned to Mexico. But this time the cracks went deeper, particularly after their friendship with another star couple turned sour."

Sussanne who has been putting long hours at work and has been partying solo, say friends, is "seriously unhappy." She was conspicuous by her absence at the family's Ganeshotsav celebrations this year and neither was she seen at the Krrish 3 promotional events. She made a brief appearance at Rakesh Roshan's birthday on September 6 this year, citing her father Sanjay Khan's illness, but maintained a distance from her husband. The next day she flew out to Paris but didn't return to Palazzio when she came back to Mumbai.

That was when Sanjay and his wife Zarine decided to intervene. They told their daughters, Farah Khan Ali and Simone, to speak to the couple. The meetings happened at Sussanne's father, Sanjay Khan's house, Sanjay Plaza. "But the meetings were not fruitful," a friend of Hrithik's told this newspaper. Sussanne was adamant that she would not go back to live at Palazzio but by then Hrithik was in no mood to oblige her, says a common friend of the couple.

Happier times

The acrimony is in stark contrast to the love story between the two. In an earlier interview, Hrithik, 39, had admitted that he'd known since he was twelve that Sussanne was the girl for him. They moved among the same circle of friends while they were growing up in Juhu , but at the time Hrithik was too shy to confess his feelings for her and was simply content to adore her from a distance.

Eventually Sussanne went abroad and Hrithik stayed back to chase his celluloid dreams. Then one day, while waiting at a traffic signal, he turned and locked eyes with a pretty girl at the wheel of the car next to him. It was Sussane. So thunderstruck was the young man by this momentous development in his loife that he insisted it be recreated on screen in his debut film, Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai.

Older and more confident, especially after the film's humongous success, he now started pursuing Sussane in earnest. On Valentine's Day, he told her of his love and exactly a year later he went down on his knees on Juhu beach and proposed to Sussane in true fschmaltzy Valentine Day spirit.

The couple had two sons and seemed well on their way to being that rarity in Bollywood: a happy couple. In 2011 even as newspapers were buzzing about a certain Mexican seductress, Sussane Roshan publicly declared her love for Hrithik on stage at an awards ceremony in Singapore leaving Hrithik look misty-eyed.

He was again overwhelmed when he stepped into her interiors shop one month later, on February 27, tears visible. "For 15 years, she has supported me in my career. Now I want to be her pillar and punching board," he was quoted as saying in an interview then.

Friends will vouch that the two have always been there for each other, except in these last few months when they have been leading markedly separate lives.

Many still have trouble believing that the Hrithik-Sussane love story is indeed over. Sanjay Khan dismissed the troubles between the couple.

"They just need space, and this is not closure," he told PTI. While Sussane Roshan told us, via a text message: "We are two individuals who respect and care for each other and have made our individual choices. We are parents to two wonderful kids and our responsibility remains to protect and take care of them. Nothing can change that. I would appreciate if we are given our privacy in such a time."