Date: February 18, 2006
Wedding: Vikram Chatwal, son of wealthy New-York hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, wed model/actress/former investment banker Priya Sachdev.
Details: 10-day multi-city celebration (Mumbai, Udaipur and Delhi) with 600 guests from 26 countries who were flown around on private chartered jets. Guest(s) of honour– Bill Clinton, Shahrukh Khan, Naomi Campbell, P. Diddy, Deepak Chopra, Manmohan Singh and members of royal families from Iran, Greece and Indian maharajas.
Cost: $20 million. Their wedding is constantly listed among top ten most expensive weddings in the world.
2011: Cut the chase to just five years later and the couple is reportedly separated. The mind-boggling $20 million spent on their wedding is enough to make you say what were they thinking and why aren’t they making it work?! At least give it 20 years before you separate!
The Story: Though not yet officially divorced, Vikram has been spotted around New York City with Hollywood’s troubled star, Lindsay Lohan. An American daily reported that the “soon-to-be-bachelor” Vikram flew Lindsay on his private jet to New York and put her up in his penthouse at the Chatwal Hotel.
The same newspaper also reported that the alleged new couple was seen cozying up recently at a prominent hotspot in the NYC and were later spotted at the after-party for Uma Thurman’s latest movie release.
However, a source close to Lindsay has been quoted as saying, “They have a friendship and a business relationship.”
“We are just friends.” – Yeah, as if we haven’t heard that before!
In an interview with New York Times, before Vikram and Priya got married, Vikram admitted that he was a Casanova. He was quoted as saying, “I was just enjoying life and friends and, well, being a bit of a hedonist.”
He stated that Priya had changed all that. In addition to the two of them falling in love with each other, there was also parental pressure, more so from Chatwal’s father. "My father is quite conservative and religious, and he's been wanting me to get married since I was 15," Vikram had said in the interview. Priya was reportedly the first Indian girl that he had ever dated, and hence the heightened eagerness of his family to see him settle down with her.
Priya Sachdev, a graduate of London School of Economics, hails from an affluent family too with holdings that include an automobile dealership and an apparel export company.
Our very own Mumbai socialite Queenie Dhody and her husband Raja Dhody were the ones to introduce Vikram and Priya to each other.
So while the American half of the now separated couple is dating the in-and-out-of-jail-and-rehab celebrity LiLo, Ms. Sachdev is reportedly courting none other than Sanjay Kapur! Karishma Kapoor-Sanjay Kapur got married in 2003 and it has been a roller-coaster of a relationship with severalrumourssurfacing about Sanjay’s unfaithfulness through the years. They are reportedly estranged now and the latest speculation is about his affair with Priya Sachdev, as a source revealed to a newspaper that they are seen together almost every night and have been together for almost a year.
Well, we just have to wait and see.