Lara Dutta

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Lara Dutta was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh to a Punjabi father and an Anglo-Indian mother. Her father is Wing Commander L. K Dutta. Dutta’s family relocated to Bangalore in the initial years where she completed her education from St. Francis Xavier Girls High School, Frank Anthony Public School and also secured a degree in economics and also communication from University of Mumbai later on. Dutta after her studies tried her luck at modelling and she enrolled in the 1995 Miss Gladrags Mega model competition which gave her a break as she went on to represent India in the Miss Intercontinental in 1997 which subsequently led to her being crowned Miss Universe in the year 2000 which was held in Cyprus, she was also the second Indian to win the prestigious award. Incidentally Dutta was the highest individual scorer in the history of Miss Universe competition in all rounds and was considered the most intelligent women as of then to win the title.

Lara Dutta is married to famous Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi; he is also the founder of International Premier Tennis League and holder of many major grand slams including Australian Open. French Open and many more. The couple has one daughter Saira.

Entry into Cinema from modelling : Dutta started receiving numerous film offers after her title win but she made her acting debut in the year 2002 in the Tamil thriller Arasatchi opposite actor Arjun, but the movie had a delayed release in the year 2004 due to some financial constraints. So Dutta got her first release in 2003 through the Hindi musical romantic movie Andaaz opposite Akshay Kumar, which technically became her film debut. The movie turned out to be huge hit and also won Dutta the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut for her sparkling debut along with her co-actress Priyanka Chopra. But Dutta followed up with flop thriller Bardaasht in the year 2004 even though the gritty thriller garnered unbelievable critical acclaim upon release especially for Bobby Deol’s performance. Masti which was the first instalment of the Masti trilogy followed by Grand Masti and Great Grand Masti, Masti went on to became an exceptional grosser and Dutta played a key role in it. Array of commercial flops (2004-2005 ) Lara Dutta had a pretty low run in 2004 and 2005 as almost all her releases of the year including Bardaasht. Aan: Men At Work where she appeared alongside an ensemble cast of Akshay Kumar, Jackie Shroff and Suniel Shetty but the movie did not create much of an impact. Insan which was her first release of 2005 also got cold responses. Vikram Bhatt’s action thriller Elaan was Dutta’s next major release which only performed moderate business. Dutta joined hands with Vikram Bhatt again later that year for yet another thriller were she appeared alongside Bobby Deol though the movie too could not turn things around for her career. Slow Transition to supporting heroine roles (mid 2005) The latter part of 2005 turned out to be of paramount importance to Dutta’s career as she committed a string of highly successful films. Kaal, the supernatural horror movie starring Ajay Devgn, Vivek Oberoi and John Abraham with Lara Dutta too plating the lead .The movie on environment protection bankrolled by Karan Johar and ShahRukh Khan received highly favourable reviews for being a unique horror movie and also went on to be one among the top money spinners of the year. Dutta was next seen in the comedy No Entry, where she was seen amidst a huge star cast including Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan which incidentally became a blockbuster and the biggest hit of 2005 in Hindi cinema and also fetched good critical reviews. No Entry is still considered to be the biggest hits in Dutta’s career and a major benchmark in her filmography till date. Dutta later in the year replaced Ameesha Patel in the romantic drama Dosti: Friends Forever alongside Bobby Deol, Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, the movie although a underperformer in the Indian market; became one of the top grossers outside India, was beneficial for Dutta as it got her widespread critical acclaim and also made her a regular face for the movie goers and also brought out her acting promise to new heights. Dutta’s 2006 kick-started with the comedy Bhagam Bhag where she joined hands again with her frequent on screen co-star Akshay Kumar along with Govinda in another key role. The Priyadarsan directorial too went on to be stunning success at the box office. After a year’s gap Lara Dutta came up in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom in the year 2007 which failed to leave a mark. Meanwhile in the year 2008 Dutta also lent her voice for the animated film Jumbo David Dhawan cast her next alongside Salman Khan and Govinda in the comedy Partner which also broke collection records. Dutta flowed up with special cameos in ShahRukh Khan starrer‘s Om Shanti Om and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Dutta in the year 2009 also went on to be a part of India’s costliest film as of then, Blue Starring Akshay Kumar, the movie she recalls was a major learning curve in her personal and cinema life as she had to learn swimming to do the movie, due to which she was reluctant to take up the project in the first place but agreed only after constant requests from Akshay Kumar, despite all the hype the movie failed miserably. Do Knot Disturb which followed was only a sleeper hit. Housefull was her next, an ensemble comedy which collected heavily from all centres and emerged a super hit. Recent outings(2011-present) Lara Dutta was much in need of an individual hit that seemed to be missing although her group ventures were turning out to be successful thus Dutta had been running low in her career for most part of the second half of the 2000’s .It was during this time when she began her home production house Bheegi Basanti Entertainment and her first production venture was the 2011 film Chalo Dilli which was a mediocre outing but she got immensely encouraging reviews for her performance, next up Don 2 had Dutta in prominent special appearance and her item song number clicked big time among the audience. Dutta came back strongly with a crucial character in Bejoy Nambiar’s Multi-lingual David, where she appeared as a widow with a son, with whom one of the three title character’s (All three named David) develops a deep bond with gradually amidst much mental turmoil, The character Neelam was something which she had never come across earlier in her career; different from the usual glamorous side-lined heroine act which she was used to, and her matured and sensitive portrayal of melancholic and self-contained self was considered to be one of the Revelations of the thriller which she herself recreated in the Tamil version too as Gayathri. Dutta’s most recent outings were Akshay Kumar’s comedy Singh is Bling , Abhishek Kapoor’s Fitoor and Azhar all of which saw her in supporting roles.