Lara Dutta is the daughter of Wing Commander, Mr. L.K. Dutta and Jeniffer Dutta. She is half Scottish from her mother's side. She has 2 sisters. One sister is a part of Indian Air Force. Lara was born in 1978, April 16 in Ghaziabad. Her height is five feet eight inches.

Lara's family relocated to Bangalore in 1981. She went to St. Francis Xavier Girls' High school and cleared her class X from there, after which she joined Frank Anthony Public School for her higher secondary. She has a degree from Mumbai University in Economics.

Dutta had taken part in Gladrags Mega Model and Manhunt contest, organized by Maureen Wadia in 1997 and had won. She then took part in the Miss India contest, which she won and subsequently went onto win Miss Universe in the year 2000. She scored the maximum marks possible to score in Miss Universe, in the history of the contest.

Lara entered Bollywood with the movie Andaaz, costarring Priyanka Chopra and Khiladi Akshay Kumar. It was in 2002. Her comedies have been more successful than her other genres. Partner (2007) with Salman Khan, No Entry (2005) and Masti(2004) with Vivek Oberoi were her successful movies.

She was offered role in The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and The Matrix Reloaded(2003), but she refused them as she did not approve of the script. She has a healthy sense of humour and a flair for writing. Earlier, she dated Kelly Dorjee. Now, she is married to Indian tennis player Mahesh Bhupati.