Indian chic in Rajasthan

A new generation of enterprising, independent hoteliers is emerging in Rajasthan. First Jaisal Singh of Sujan Luxury Hotels launched his luxurious tented camps at Jaisalmer and Ranthambhore, then Nikhil Singh opened Raas in Jodhpur. Now 29-year-old Inderpal Singh Kochhar, the founder of the new Sewara brand, is creating a small portfolio of inexpensive, socially and environmentally sensitive hotels which aspire, he says, to 'offer experiences in pristine off-the-beaten-track' parts of the country, where guests will be able to witness village life first-hand.

Singh was educated in Delhi and New York (where he studied film-making), after which he worked at The Setai in Miami. His first venture was the Lodi, a restaurant in Delhi's Lodhi Gardens, followed by a resort in Pushkar. This autumn, under his Sewara hospitality brand, he launches a new hotel, Lakshman Sagar, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Jodhpur. It is a settlement of a dozen spacious, secluded mud-and-stone cottages, each with its own plunge pool, on the shores of a lake in the grounds of a 19th-century hunting lodge. It will be followed by a 24-room property within the 25-acre park at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in the heart of Lutyens-designed New Delhi. Future Sewara projects also include beach hotels on the Andaman Islands, as well as the conversion of Ajabgarh Fort in Rajasthan.