Lara Dutta is an Indian actress, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and former Miss Universe (2000). Lara Dutta was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh to father Wing Commander L.K. Dutta (retired) and mother Jennifer Dutta.
Her family moved to Bangalore in 1981 where she completed high school. Her sister serves in the Indian Airforce. Lara graduated in economics with a minor in communications from Bombay University. She is a cousin of Nitin Sawhney. She was crowned Miss Universe in 2000 which led to her appointment as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.
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, 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. She made her film 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 successful. Her box office hits include Masti (2004), Kaal (2005), No Entry (2005) and Dosti: Friends Forever (2005).