BEST OF THE BEST

Best of the Best Turns Bollywood Dance Into a Fight for the Championship

For Maya and Anjali, joining the dance team was supposed to be fun. Then they found out just how serious college dance can get.

Best of the Best follows childhood best friends Maya and Anjali as they arrive at UCLA and join the school's competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team.

What begins as an opportunity to dance, find community and experience college together quickly becomes something much more intense.

The team has its sights set on winning the U.S. Championship, and Maya and Anjali soon discover a competitive world filled with rivalries, cliques, pressure and plenty of drama behind the performances.

As rehearsals become more demanding and the competition heats up, their pursuit of a championship begins testing more than their ability to perform.

It tests their friendship.

Starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priya Kedia, the coming-of-age comedy celebrates Bollywood-fusion dance while exploring friendship, sisterhood, cultural identity and the sometimes messy process of figuring out who you are as a young adult.

The film was co-written by Hasan Minhaj and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, who drew inspiration from the South Asian dance competitions and communities they experienced during their own college years. Minhaj also appears in the film as professor Hamza Latif.

Behind all the competition is a story about two longtime friends discovering that growing up together doesn't necessarily mean they'll always grow in the same direction.

Winning the championship would be great.

Making sure their friendship survives the journey might matter even more.

Best of the Best begins streaming September 18 on Netflix.