Your favorite dance movie can say a lot about you. Step Up fans love an opposites-attract story, where two completely different worlds collide through rhythm and movement. If you are a Black Swan devotee, the psychological thrill of dance as a form of visceral body horror is what pulls you in. Meanwhile, Dirty Dancing remains the ultimate comfort food for nostalgia junkies who crave rebellion, sweeping soundtracks, and the bittersweet memories of summer camp.
Yet, for decades, a massive cultural cornerstone of youthful performance art remained largely unrepresented in mainstream Hollywood cinema: the vibrant, high-stakes, and intensely competitive world of South Asian collegiate dance.
That narrative paradigm shifted definitively when Netflix debuted its newest dance-film entry, Best of the Best. Centering on characters that millions of South Asian Americans can immediately see themselves reflected in, the film captures a unique diaspora experience. For many Desi kids, dance served as the focal point of their cultural upbringing—not merely as an extracurricular activity selected by well-meaning parents eager to appear more cultured to family back home, but as a vital, visceral bridge to a homeland left behind. For others, it was a secret passion fostered by re-creating elaborate Bollywood numbers in the safety of a locked bedroom.
Best of the Best explores the fascinating evolution that occurred when these children took their cultural dance forms to college, embedding them within the high-pressure ecosystem of North American university campuses. Directed by Lena Khan, written and produced by Hasan Minhaj, and anchored by breakout stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia, the film transcends the standard constraints of the teen dance genre. It offers a hilarious, deeply heartfelt, and universally resonant look at ambition, competition, and female friendship.
Detailed Chronology: From Real-World Roots to Netflix’s Screen
To understand the cultural weight of Best of the Best, one must trace the lineage of South Asian collegiate dance in North America, a movement with a rich and structured history spanning over three decades.
The 1990s: The First Wave on Campus
The foundational wave of South Asian college-dance teams emerged organically in the 1990s. As the South Asian diaspora swelled on North American university campuses, students sought ways to reclaim, celebrate, and perform the cultural movement forms they grew up with. What started as informal student clubs and campus talent-show acts quickly snowballed into organized, highly disciplined crews specializing in regional and fusion styles.
2005: The Birth of a Landmark Competition
The film’s title pays explicit homage to a monumental piece of this history: the original "Best of the Best" (BOB) competition. Founded in New York City in 2005, BOB was a watershed moment for the community. It was the first large-scale, premier South Asian dance competition in North America, inviting elite collegiate dance teams specializing in bhangra, raas-garba, and Bollywood fusion to battle it out live on stage for the ultimate championship title. Although BOB ceased operations in 2012, its legacy paved the way for a booming collegiate circuit.
Present Day: A Structured Global Circuit
Today, the South Asian collegiate-dance landscape is larger and more professionalized than ever. Organizations like the Desi Dance Network serve as governing and organizing bodies, overseeing teams of diverse styles that compete year-round. These troupes battle across regional circuits for the ultimate prestige: qualifying for elite national showcases like the Legends Dance Championship.
August 2025: Behind the Scenes on Set
On a humid August afternoon in 2025, production on Best of the Best entered its final stages inside a bustling theater in Newark, New Jersey. The atmosphere on set crackled with a distinct, collaborative energy. Professional hip-hop dancers mingled effortlessly with Broadway veterans, seasoned television actors, and fresh-faced newcomers executing their very first major production. When director Lena Khan called "cut" for the final time that afternoon, the cast and crew were treated to a surprise visit from writer-director Gurinder Chadha—the visionary behind the definitive Y2K Desi-diaspora teen classic, Bend It Like Beckham—cementing the film’s place as a spiritual successor to cinematic history.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Anatomy of a Modern Dance Movie
Best of the Best follows Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia), two lifelong best friends entering their freshman year at UCLA. Together, they must navigate the dizzying highs and academic lows of college life while carrying the crushing performance demands of a hyper-competitive Bollywood fusion dance team.
Breaking Down the Numbers
The production process behind the film was nothing short of an athletic endurance test. Neither Ramakrishnan nor Kedia possessed a formal dance background before stepping into their respective roles. To bridge the gap, the studio established an intensive, months-long preparatory phase that both actors cheekily refer to as "boot camp."
Training Volume: 6 dance classes a day, 6 days a week.
Duration: 4 consecutive months of grueling, high-impact physical conditioning.
Result: A seamless cinematic execution of complex choreography that rivals veteran performance troupes.
The Realities of Representation
While previous media projects targeting South Asian youth often relied on existential coming-of-age plots centered around identity crises or cultural alienation, Best of the Best marks a refreshing evolution. As Priyanka Kedia notes, the characters are not struggling with who they are; their identities are fully formed. Instead, the central conflicts are universally human: friendship, ambition, jealousy, and the friction of growing up alongside someone who knows you better than you know yourself.
Comparisons to Netflix’s Never Have I Ever—on which Ramakrishnan famously starred as the beloved Devi Vishwakumar—were inevitable the moment the Best of the Best trailer dropped. However, Ramakrishnan has been quick to draw a hard line between her past and present characters. While Devi was famously unathletic and plagued by poor posture, Maya is a disciplined, hyper-focused athlete whose physical poise is woven into every frame, right down to her stride.
Official Statements & Cast Insights
The journey of bringing Best of the Best to life was marked by serendipity, deep collaboration, and mutual admiration among the creative team.
Priyanka Kedia’s path to landing the role of Anjali reads like a Hollywood fairy tale. At the time the script landed in her hands, Kedia was working as a barista behind the counter of Kolkata Chai Co. in New York City’s East Village. Juggling coffee orders with raw theatrical talent, she utilized every five-minute break to practice the rigorous audition choreography in a cramped back room.
"It’s not our identities that we’re struggling with; that’s not the central conflict," Kedia reflects on the script. "We just exist as we are, and our conflicts are universal. The things we’re struggling with are friendship and competition and jealousy."
Reflecting on the intense physical demands of the production, Kedia highlights how the grueling rehearsal schedule forged an unbreakable bond between the two leads.
"We were trauma bonded a little bit," Kedia jokes. "We had to build that trust immediately, because when doing intense duo dances, there’s no other option. If one of us pulled back or wasn’t there to catch the other person, we would fall. These girls are supposed to have grown up dancing together, so there’s an unspoken physical trust between them that we needed to spend that time developing."
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the joyous celebration of community present on set.
"This movie is so overwhelmingly brown in the best way possible," Ramakrishnan says.
She also takes time to credit the mentorship she received early in her career, noting the influence of Never Have I Ever co-creator Mindy Kaling and showrunner Lang Fisher:
"I have to give my flowers to Mindy Kaling—she and Lang Fisher taught me how to be a number one, how to show up on set respectfully, and always come prepared. They drilled these things into me, and I always carry it with me to every project."
Comparing the central dynamic of Maya and Anjali to literature rather than standard cinema, Kedia points to Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed novel My Brilliant Friend.
"When the two of them fight during the film, it’s not out of anger towards each other. It’s almost that they love each other to the point where misunderstanding feels like a betrayal. ‘I love you so much, so why don’t you understand what I’m feeling?’ It’s such an intricate relationship, and I’m excited to be part of a project that puts female friendship at the center."
Ramakrishnan encapsulates the thesis of the entire project simply:
"Dance is the vehicle to bring people into the story, but at its core, this is a friendship story."
Future Outlook: The Global Impact of Desi Storytelling
As Best of the Best establishes itself on streaming platforms, its long-term cultural ramifications are already coming into focus. The film serves as a love letter to the millions of students who spent their college years balancing organic chemistry midterms with midnight dance practices in sweaty university recreation centers.
Dance has historically functioned as a primary vehicle for storytelling throughout South Asia. Notably, the Sanskrit root of kathak—one of the world’s oldest classical dance forms—translates directly to "story." Best of the Best modernizes this ancient tradition, translating it for a generation of digital natives and diaspora youth navigating the complexities of modern identity.
By blending universal coming-of-age themes with specific, culturally rich traditions—complete with club nights gone awry, exasperated parents walking in at the wrong time, and outsiders bewildered by extreme athletic dedication—the film proves that specificity breeds universality.
Whether the story strikes a chord with former collegiate dancers reminiscing about their glory days, or inspires a new generation of Desi kids to take up movement arts, the film’s international impact is undeniable. As Maitreyi Ramakrishnan aptly notes, great storytelling transcends borders. And for the global diaspora, Best of the Best is just the beginning.
