Lara Dutta Miss Universe 2000

Biography

Lara Dutta is one of the most promising actresses in Bollywood presently. She started her career as a model and after doing campaigns for a number of known brands, went on to become Miss India, in 2000. Thereafter, she went for the Miss Universe competition and was declared the winner. After spending one year abroad, she came back to India and entered the world of Bollywood, making her debut in the year 2003, with the movie ?Andaz?. Since then, the fine actress has continued to mesmerize audience with her charming grace and excellent acting skills.

She was born the youngest of three children to Wg. Cdr. L.K. Dutta (retired) and Jennifer Dutta in Ghaziabad, India on April 16,1978. In 1981, her family moved to Bangalore, India where she attended high school. After receiving the highest score in India on the English section of her National Board Exams, Lara continued her education at Bombay University and completed a degree in economics and a minor in communications. There was no doubt that Lara Dutta was intelligent and level-headed, but no one expected what happened next.

Her first opportunity came in the form of L'oreal, who had just entered the Indian market. They were conducting a model search in the 'garden city', which Lara entered and duly won, her prize was a four year modelling contract.

In 2000, Lara Dutta participated in Miss India contest and ended up winning the title, beating all the other contestants. The same year, she went to Nicosia in Cyprus, for the Miss Universe Title, and made a clean sweep of the same. In fact, Dutta became the 1st Miss Universe to win with the unanimous vote of the entire panel of judges. She spent the next twelve months in moving across the world and visiting more than 68 countries, spreading messages of AIDS awareness and Aiding the Girl Child.

During this time, she also made appearances for Designer and friend Randolph Duke, Sean Combs, and Roberto Cavali. She became the ?Brand Ambassador? of Maurice Lacroix, Longines, Clairol and Mikimoto of Japan. While living in New York, between 2000 and 2001, Dutta hosted a Radio Talk show for ABC, which profiled women achievers from across the globe. While she was holding the title of Miss Universe, United Nations invited her to become its UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador for life. Since then, she has been contributing towards issues of AIDS awareness in India and Female Reproductive Rights.

Lara Dutta entered the world of Bollywood with the movie ?Andaz? (2003), in which she was one of the two female leads, other being Priyanka Chopra. The film proved to be a success and won her Filmfare Best Female Debut Award, which she shared with Chopra. Though Dutta had done a Tamil movie ?Arasatchi? in 2002, financial problems forced it to be released only in mid-2004. In 2004, she was seen in ?Masti?, which turned out to be a box office hit, followed by ?Bardaasht?, ?Aan: Men at Work? and a special appearance on ?Khakee?.

The year 2005 saw Dutta appearing in a number of movies, namely ?Insan?, ?Elaan?, ?Jurm?, ?Kaal?, ?No Entry?, ?Ek Ajnabee? (Special appearance) and ?Dosti: Friends Forever?. Amongst all these films, ?Kaal? and ?No Entry? became successful at the box office. The next year, she starred in ?Zinda? and ?Bhagam Bhag?. The latter one was a comedy and garnered good collections. She started 2007 with ?Jhoom Barabar Jhoom?, a box office failure, followed by ?Partner?, which became a blockbuster.

Lara Dutta is a trained Bharatnatyam and Kathak dancer. She loves to read and also has a habit of writing extensively. Along with that, she is an avid adventure sports enthusiast. This is the reason why she does all her own stunts, whether they are for advertising campaigns or movies. Dutta lives in Mumbai, but visits her family in Bangalore, whenever she finds time for the same. She dated model Kelly Dorjee for quite a long time, but the couple broke up sometime back. Presently, she is rumored to be dating actor Dino Morea.