May 12, 2000, will always be special for Lara Dutta as she brought the Miss Universe title home. She won the title six years after Sushmita Sen. It is about to be 24 years and she has been ruling over our hearts with her beauty and grace ever since. As the actress turns 45 today, let’s go down memory lane and revisit her crowning moment.
Lara is not only a versatile actor but also an example of beauty with brains. In 2000, there were protests in Cyprus claiming the beauty pageant to be a platform where women are objectifying and during the final question-answer round Lara was asked to convince the protestors that the pageant is the opposite. To this, she confidently answered, “I think pageants, like the Miss Universe pageant, give us young women a platform to foray into the fields that we want to and forge ahead. Be it entrepreneurship, be it in the armed forces, be it politics. It gives us a platform to voice our choices and opinions and makes us strong and independent that we are today.” In one of the similar rounds, she was also asked how male politicians in India are different from female politicians to which she responded that female politicians have a certain amount of sensitivity.
Across the various rounds of the competition, whenever she was asked a question about India, she would always answer with ultimate confidence and grace which made her stand out and win love not only from her country but also from the judges and fellow participants.
For her Miss Universe look, Lara wore a shiny backless red gown with a dramatic bun and makeup. Eventually, this look turned even more beautiful as the crown perfectly complemented it .
She later joined the movies and was part of films like Partner, Housefull and Bhagam Bhag. On the personal front, she married former tennis player Mahesh Bhupathi in 2011 and they have a daughter.
