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Lara Dutta (born April 16, 1978) is an Indian actress,
UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and the 2000 Miss Universe.
Dutta was born on April 16, 1978 in Ghaziabad, Uttar
Pradesh, India. Her father is Wing Commander L.K.
Dutta (retired) and her mother is Jennifer Puddi. She
also has two older sisters, one of whom serves in the
Indian Air Force and a well known younger sister.
Famed composer and DJ Nitin Sawhney is Dutta's cousin.
The Lara Dutta's family moved to Bangalore in 1981 where she
completed high school from St.Francis Xavier Girl's
High School. Lara graduated in economics with a minor
in communications from Bombay University at Bangalore.
Lara was crowned Miss Universe in 2000 which led to her
appointment as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.
Lara had dated Kelly Dorjee,model, for a very long
time, but recently split, due to unknown sources.
Sources have also been said that Lara is dating
bollywood star Dino Morea, who is one of Kelly's close
friends and also a very close friend of Lara. They
have known each other for about 17 years now.
Lara Dutta won the annual Gladsrags modelling competition
in her native India, thus winning the right to be the
first Indian representative at the 1997 Miss
Intercontinental pageant, in which she took first
place. Later, she was crowned Femina Miss India
Universe and Miss Universe in 2000.
At Miss Universe 2000 in Cyprus, Lara Dutta was the clear
favourite ahead of fierce competition from Venezuela,
Spain, USA and Canada. Her finalist interview score,
in the last year that such marks were televised, was
the highest individual score in any category in the
history of the Miss Universe contest, as her perfect
interview saw a majority of the judges giving her the
maximum 9.99 mark. After her final question, in which
Dutta delivered a passionate defense of the Miss
Universe contest (and other beauty pageants), she
became the second Indian Miss Universe. In the same
year, Priyanka Chopra and Diya Mirza won their
respective Miss World and Miss Asia Pacific titles
which gave India a rare triple victory in the world of
beauty pageants.
Lara Dutta primarily signed up to do the Tamil film,
Arasatchi in 2002, but due to financial problems, it
only released in mid-2004. She made her Hindi debut in
2003 with the film Andaaz which was a box office
success and won her a Filmfare Best Female Debut
Award. She then appeared in a number of films, some of
which failed at the box office and some of which were
mildly successful. Her box office "hits" include Masti
(2004), Kaal (2005),No Entry (2005) and Partner
(2007). In 2006, she starred in the comedy, Bhagam
Bhag which did well at the box office. Dutta's first
release of 2007 was Shaad Ali's Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
The film was a box office failure in India but did
better overseas, especially in the U.K. Lara Dutta received
mixed reviews for her performance in the film. Her
latest release, Partner opened to a good response and
became a hit.