BEAUTY WITH BRAINSLara Dutta is a defence kid. Which means that her father was an officer in the Defence forces. These kids tend to get used to relocating every three years and are usually very confident, friendly and outgoing, thanks to the hectic social life of their parents. They also gather an impressive amount of general knowledge owing to the frequent relocations. No wonder that a high percentage of beauty queens come from a defence background. Lara Dutta was no different. Tall at 5'8", beautiful and well groomed, she was poised too and communicated very well. As is with tall lissom girls, Lara Dutta tried her hand at modelling. She won the first place in the Miss Intercontinetal modelling pagent in 1997. She withdrew her papers from the Femina Miss India pagent at the last minute because she wanted to be their Millenium Miss India. With confidence of this sorts there was no keeping Lara away from glory. She won the Y2K Miss India title and was their entry for the Miss Universe pagent to be held at Cyprus.
India had already won the Miss Universe title once when Sushmita was crowned in 1997. Lara Dutta not only won the title again for India but she also broke all the records by scoring the highest marks ever by any contestent. Her final speech in favor of beauty pagents was impassioned and won her accolades.
AISA JADOO DALA REAgain, following in the steps of several earlier beauty queens, Lara tried to get into movies. Her very first movie,
Andaaz(2003) with
Akshay and fellow Miss India and Miss World
Priyanka Chopra was a hit.
Andaaz had a great story with many twists and turns in the plot, with
Akshay left to choose between his fiance
Priyanka and his childhood sweetheart, Lara who is now widowed.
Akshay was an old hand, but both
Priyanka and
Lara performed well and were welcomed into the film industry.
Lara's next was the big Apoorva Lakhia movie
Mumbai se Aaya Mera Dost. Apoorva was one of the assistant directors on
Lagaan, and the movie was an attempt to hightlight the urban/rurual divide. The concept was not bad, but execution suffered. The viewers cannot forgive a boring movie, no matter how good its intentions. Lara was appreciated as a village belle Kesar who falls for the shehri babu
Abhishek, but the movie was a flop.
Lara did not have a big role in
Khakhi (2004), just an item number. But
'Aisa Jadoo Dala re' is still remembered for the energetic bar dance that Lara performed. Its jadoo is still alive. After all, visibility counts for a lot, and Lara was doing just that.
KYA MASTI KYA DHOOMIn Indra Kumar's
Masti (2004) Lara played a femme fatale who is out to play havoc with the lives of three friends who have decided to live it up and cheat on their wives. Their encounter with Lara and her murder shock them into realising that they would be better off if they stuck to their wives. It was an out and out comedy movie and succeeded very well at the box office. Lara had a rain dance with
Vivek Oberoi 'Chori chori chora chori' which added to the oomph factor of Lara.
Bardaasht (2004) was an E Niwas film about an ex-army officer who finds himself trying to unravel the mysterious killing of his younger brother. The movie was alright, but maybe due to lack of adequate publicity, the movie did not do well. It starred Lara with
Bobby Deol, both performed creditably. But the movie underlines the importance of television promos, item numbers that whet audience's curiousity.
Aan : Men at work (2004) was a Madhur Bhandarkar film and a good cop thriller. The movie was a moderate success, but Lara was there in more or less a decorative role, as Akshay's girl. Similarly
Insaan (2005) where the action was hogged by a line up of male stars and the women enjoyed a quick scene or two as their wives ro girlfriends. However, the tag of a hit film benefits all the cast and Lara was fortunate to be seen in some good movies.
BAD LUCK GOOD LUCKElaan(2005) an effort by Vikram Bhatt, flopped. Lara was there with
John, Arjun Rampal, Amisha etc, but the movie just did not have any dum to shake the box office money tree.
Jurm (2005) again by Vikram Bhatt and starring Lara with Bobby, flopped, Again a lacklustre movie by a good director who was suffering from overconfidence.
Kaal (2005) had Lara starring alongside
Vivek Oberoi in this
Karan Johar movie, though it was directed by Soham. It was a fairly good supernatural movie and did moderately well at the box office. As the focus of the whole movie was four friends who are travelling through a spooky forest, the actors got a good exposure and Lara, again, performed well.
Anees Bazmee's
No Entry (2005) was again a crowded affair with several heros and heroines on the lineup. Lara played the shrewish suspicious wife of
Anil Kapoor. Even if the movies she chose did not give her much scope for acting, Lara continued to perform with confidence and competance.
Suneel Darshan made a hash of
Dosti - Friends Forever(2005), despite a good star cast of
Akshay,
Bobby, Lara and
Kareena. The movie sank without anyone noticing.
ZINDA HOON MAINZinda (2006- Sanjay Gupta) belonged to the tussle between
John and Sanjay. Jenny played a taxi driver who befriends and helps Sanjay in his quest to find his tormentors. She played a punjabi girl in Bangkok with oodles of attitude. Her low slung jeans and lean frame made her look hot in the male dominated flick. The movie was successful and notched up Lara's credits.
Next up, in 2006 was
Bhagam Bhag which was the comeback vehicle of
Govinda. This Priyadarshan directed comedy starred Lara Dutta alongwith
Govinda and
Akshay Kumar. This movie was a hit, and Lara got a good chance to hone her comic skills. They were to come in handy next year in
Partner where she starred with
Govinda and
Salman Khan. This movie too, had the typical David Dhawan madness and succeeded at the box office.
JHOOM YA BUSTJhoom Barabar Jhoom was a big movie under the Yash Raj banner with Shaad Ali of
Bunty aur Babli and
Saathiya. Alas the fare was inspid and disjointed. The viewers had a hard time making sense of what was going on. The verdict, a dismal failure. But not for Lara. Practically everone who saw the movie, came away wowed by her sexy avatar. Lara herself said that she was fortunate to have come out unscathed by this movie.
If we look back, Lara is still a fresher in this industry, having started working barely four years back. She had some problems with her secretary which could have resulted in some bad choices. Even though some of the movies she worked in were good, her roles were rarely substantial enough. She had already proved her mettle in her very first movie,
Andaaz, and even in the small roles, she usually comes across as a confident, competant actress. Good looking she is, no denying the fact. In fact she has many admirers who would love to see her in better roles.
GOSSSSSIPShe has been in a kind of a competition with her fellow beauty queen
Priyanka Chopra (as were
Sushmita and
Aishwarya- and the neverending windows-linux rivalary).
Priyanka has raced ahead of Lara in the first lap by bagging many presitigious films. Although Lara is prettier, she has not been able to keep up with that kind of success. It could be due to a bad secretary who was not able to get her good projects. Now that her secretary has changed, here is hoping she manages to catch up and overtake
Priyanka.
She has had a long term live-in relationship with Kelly Dorjee. Quite like the other bollywood couple,
John and
Bipasha, they too are plagued with frequent rumours of link-ups with other stars and breakup. The couple manages to stay together despite the tough time the press gives them.
FILMOGRAPHY