Lara Dutta is celebrating her 43rd birthday today and has been showered with love and adulation from her friends, fans and family. Before embarking on a career in the Hindi film industry, Lara was crowned Miss Universe 2000 and became the second woman to win Miss Universe title after Sushmita Sen in 1994. Today, on her birthday, her crowning moment from the pageant is going viral where she outwitted her fellow finalists – Claudia Moreno from Venezuela and Spain’s Helen Lindes. Interestingly, the three finalists were asked the same question in the final round and were asked, “Right now there is a protest going on right outside here calling the Miss Universe Pageant disrespectful of women. Convince them they are wrong."
In response to the question and with regards to the protests against the pageant being carried out in Cyprus, Lara said, “I think pageants like the Miss Universe pageant gives us young women a platform to foray in the fields that we want to and forge ahead, be it entrepreneurship, be it the armed force, be it politics. It gives us a platform to voice our choices and opinions and makes us strong, independent that we are today." The answer floored the judges and she was crowned Miss Universe 2000.
On the other hand, Lara’s husband, tennis champion Mahesh Bhupathi showered love on her on her birthday and recalled their first meeting over a decade ago. He revealed that when he saw Lara the thought that crossed his mind was –‘chance pe dance’. He shared a picture of their first meeting as well as a recent one and captioned it, “Happy Birthday @larabhupathi .. Throw back to the first time we met 12 years ago when I thought “ chance pe dance “ to what you have built for us today .. #blessed #supermom #yummymummy #ceo #juststarting #LFG.”
Lara and Mahesh tied the knot in 2011. Their daughter, Saira, was born the following year.
(Source: Instagram/YouTube)
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