Bandar Utama is a township located within the Damansara subdivision of the Petaling district in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. It is primarily a residential suburb, but is also home to the 1 Utama Shopping Centre.

As of 2004 it is estimated that there are 59,040 people residing in Bandar Utama. The primary residents appear to be Chinese, followed by Indian and Malay. However, there were nearby squatter settlements of illegal immigrants in the neighbouring Kayu Ara village which is enclosed by Bandar Utama and Damansara Utama. They have now mostly been relocated to nearby low-cost flats and their squatter houses demolished to make way for legal developments.

Until 1991, the area of Bandar Utama consisted of nothing more than palm oil estates with fewer than 100 people. In the early 1990s, development began in Bandar Utama under See Hoy Chan Holdings Sdn. Bhd., and an attempt to modernise the area was made, with the opening of a TV3 station in Bandar Utama was opened since on 1 April 1996, as well as the 1 Utama Shopping Centre, which became increasingly well known after the Jaya Jusco chain of department stores shifted one of its outlets from nearby Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur to Bandar Utama in 1995.

Sivarasa Rasiah (Tamil: சிவராசா ராசையா),or also known as R.Sivarasa is a prominent Malaysian politician, lawyer and human rights activist. He is co-founder of Suara Rakyat Malaysia or Suaram (a human rights NGO) and vice-president of the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People’s Justice Party). In the 2008 general election, Sivarasa was elected as the Member of Parliament for Subang, defeating his opponent by a 6,000 vote majority.

Though today he may be one of the top lawyers in Kuala Lumpur, Siva's first degree was actually in genetics.

Reminiscing on his early days in an interview with the New Straits Times, Siva said, "I was trying to get into medicine after high school in Victoria Institution but didn't make the grade. Form Five was great but I guess in Form Six, there were many distractions. So instead I went into genetics in Universiti Malaya and graduated with first class honours. Six months into my Master’s I realised that this was not my cup of tea and was already looking at other options.”