Lara Dutta was born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on 16th April 1978. Her parents are L.K.Dutta, a Wing Commander and her mother is Jennifer Dutta, a singer for Doordarshan Radio, Jalandhar. Her roots are a mix of Tamil, Punjabi, and Nordic. She is the youngest of three 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 Dutta family moved to Bangalore in 1981 where she completed high school from St.Francis Xavier Girls' High School and the Frank Anthony Public School. Lara graduated in economics with a minor in communications from University of Mumbai.

Dutta won the annual Gladsrags modeling competition in her native India, thus winning the right to be the first Indian representative at the 1997 Miss Intercontinental, in which she took first place. Later, she was crowned Femina Miss India Universe and Miss Universe in 2000, she became the second Indian Miss Universe. She became the UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.


In the same year, Priyanka Chopra and Dia 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 Bollywood 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), No Entry (2005) and Partner (2007) and House Full (film) (2010).

In 2006, she starred in the comedy, Bhagam Bhag which did well at the box office. In 2007 Sania Mirza and Dutta both participated in Kaun Banega Crorepati on 13 November 2007.


Lara Dutta dumped her boyfriend of seven years, model Kelly DorjiNew York Yankees star Derek Jeter when she lived in New York city. There she was spotted at a baseball game in Yankees Stadium and a news items was carried on on ESPN.


Earlier, Lara was in serious relationships, first with Kelly Dorje and then with Dino Morea.

In September 2010, she got engaged to Indian tennis player, Mahesh Bhupathi. Bhupathi, who is divorced Shweta Jaishankar, to resume his second innings inconjugal life with Lara Dutta in Goa on February 19, 2011.