Who

Equal parts hotelier and social scenester (and occasional model and actor), the turban-wearing Vikram Chatwal owns the trendy Midtown boutique hotels Dream, Time, and Night. His father is Sant Singh Chatwal.

Backstory

The son of Sikh businessman Sant Singh Chatwal, who founded Hampshire Hotels and Resorts and the Bombay Palace chain of Indian restaurants, the Ethiopian-born Vikram graduated from Wharton and worked at Morgan Stanley for all of eight months before taking the obvious path into the hospitality industry. Thanks to financing from his wealthy father, he opened the Times Square-based boutique hotel Time in 1999, following up with the Majestic in 2002 (it's since been renamed Dream), which features a Deepak Chopra-run spa and possibly a David LaChappelle-designed lounge. (Chatwal claimed LaChappelle was responsible for the conception; the world famous photog later denied it.) In 2006, the "turban cowboy" debuted the black-and-white decorated Times Square hotel Night. He also opened up a Bangkok branch of Dream the same year.

Upcoming

Chatwal has been working on his next hotel project—the old Lamb's Club, a historic theater on West 44th Street—for the better part of five years. If it ever opens, and Chatwal promises it will sometime in 2008, it will feature a restaurant by Geoffrey Zakarian, lounge by David Rabin and Will Regan, and interior design by Thierry Despont. Chatwal also says a downtown branch of Dream will open in 2008, and he's purportedly planning to build outposts of Dream in Miami and Hyderabad, India.

Personal

The hard-partying Chatwal dated a string of models over the years including Kate Moss and Gisele Bundchen (the inspiration behind the "G" tattooed to his arm) before his father introduced him to Indian model Priya Sachdev. The two married in February 2006 and had a child shortly afterward. Chatwal lives in the Trump International building, and roars around Manhattan in an Aston Martin.

True story

Chatwal's 2006 wedding was one of the year's most talked-about social events. His father charted three jets to transport 300 guests to India; the festivities included more than a dozen parties in three Indian cities over the course of seven nights. Bill Clinton spoke at the reception; Attendees included Ann Dexter-Jones, Tracey Ross, Sean MacPherson, Eric Goode, Richard Born, Rena Sindi, Petrina Khashoggi, Patricia Velasquez, Matthew Mellon, Tim Jeffries, and Sante D'Orazio.