Before ‘Best of the Best,’ There Was Best of the Best
Exclusive: We spoke to director Lena Khan and the dancers behind the real championship that might have inspired the Netflix film.
On July 28, Netflix released its first look at Best of the Best, about the cutthroat world of American collegiate Bollywood dance teams. The film follows two dancers, played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (Never Have I Ever) and Priyanka Kedia, as they begin their first year at UCLA and try out for the team.
But few know that for hundreds of South Asian dancers between 2005 and 2012, Best of the Best wasn’t fictional at all. For them, Best of the Best was an exclusive national dance competition that also took over their lives. We spoke to the Best of the Best founders, dancers, and judges as well as Best of the Best director Lena Khan to find out how real-life off-screen competitions shaped the film.
“We kept Best of the Best as the title because it had to do with the competition element, it pays some homage to the creators of it,” director Lena Khan told The Juggernaut. “It doesn’t try so hard to be, like, ‘the reason you should watch this is because it’s South Asian,’” joking about titles like “Masala Beats.”