BILLU BARBER: Lara Dutta returns as a village belle!

It was very early in her career, 2003 to be precise, when the former Miss Universe Lara Dutta played Kesar, a village belle and Abhishek Bachchan’s love interest in the Apoorva Lakhia directed MUMBAI SE AAYA MERA DOST. Though this unconventional (one may also call it somewhat Western looking) beauty with brains, delivered a good performance as a simple village girl, all her efforts were in vain as the film sank at the ticket window. This failure resulted in Lara doing many roles which suited her urban looks and was reasonably successful too with ZINDA, BHAGAM BHAG and PARTNER being a few such examples.

However, Lara, who shares a very warm relationship with Shah Rukh Khan and has always put in a guest appearance in his films (OM SHANTI OM and RAB NE BANA DI JODI), is back in the role of a small town/village housewife in his home banner venture, BILLU BARBER. In the film, Lara plays a mother and is paired opposite Irrfan Khan.

The promos of the desi version of Pritam’s hit number, ’'Khudaya Khair’', rendered by Soham, has Lara fantacising about Shah Rukh Khan, who plays a superstar called Sahir Khan, much to the chagrin of her husband Billu (Irrfan), and it gives a nice twist to the film. In fact it makes it appear as if it is a triangle between Irrfan, Lara and SRK. Larapaji (as Akshay Kumar refers to her fondly!) is looking absolutely beautiful with minimum make up, unkempt hair, doing the usual chores in an ethnic ghagra choli.

Sexy Former Miss Universe & Indian Actress

Lara Dutta was born on April 16, 1978 in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. A Former 2000 Miss Universe, Model and Indian Actress. Her father is Wing Commander L.K. Dutta (retired) and her mother is Jennifer Dutta, who is of Punjabi descent and also was a singer for Doordarshan Radio, Jalandhar.She also has two older 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. Lara Dutta completed high school from St.Francis Xavier Girl's High School. Lara graduated in economics with a minor in communications from Bombay University at Bangalore. Dutta primarily signed up to do the Tamil film, Arasatchi in 2002, but due to financial problems, it only released in mid-2004. Lara Dutta's Hindi debut in 2003 with the film Andaaz which was a box office success and won her a Filmfare Best Female Debut Award. Her box office "hits" include Masti (2004), Kaal (2005),No Entry (2005) and Partner (2007). She was crowned Miss Universe in 2000 which led to her appointment as a UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador in 2001.