Behind the Scenes of Netflix’s ‘Best of the Best’: How Director Lena Khan and Her Team Brought Collegiate Bollywood Dance to Life

Main Facts

Netflix’s high-energy dance comedy Best of the Best immerses viewers in the fast-paced, high-emotion world of collegiate Bollywood dance competitions. Written by Hasan Minhaj and Prashanth Venkataramanujam and directed by Lena Khan, the film stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Maya, a fearless freshman who challenges the predictable tropes of Indian culture and dance routines. Alongside her best friend and co-lead Anjali (Priyanka Kedia) and team captain Ronak (Ankur Rathee), Maya helps guide the UCLA Agni dance team through the grueling, competitive circuit.

Far from a standard musical, the film relies heavily on a deeply integrated collaboration between the writer-director, cinematographers, and choreographers. Rather than treating dance numbers as disconnected music video interludes, the production team used intricate spreadsheets, line graphs, and rigorous storyboarding to ensure that every movement, style shift, and spatial configuration advanced the characters’ dramatic arcs. The cinematic journey culminated in a massive, high-stakes finale: a British museum heist themed around the reclamation of the Koh-i-noor diamond.

Chronology: From Concept to Climax

The creation of Best of the Best required an unprecedented level of early collaboration between the narrative writers and the physical movement departments.

‘Best of the Best’ Pulls Off the Perfect Heist Through Its Dance Numbers

Pre-Production and Macro Mapping

Long before cameras began rolling, director Lena Khan and her creative team—including choreographers Phillip Chbeeb, Makenzie Dustman, and Joya Kazi—mapped out the macro-narrative of the film using detailed line graphs on Google Sheets and extensive PowerPoint presentations. Each character’s emotional trajectory, from codependency to self-actualization, was charted against the timeline of the film’s musical numbers.

Production and Blistering Schedules

Principal photography operated on an aggressive shooting schedule, requiring dance numbers to be executed seamlessly in just one or two takes. Cinematographer Adam Carboni utilized commercial and music video techniques—such as motion-control camera rigs, optical illusions, hard-mounted framing, and clever plate work—to maintain the raw energy of a humble collegiate team while leveraging a grand-scale Hollywood production budget.

The Finale Shoot

The production’s ultimate test arrived during the shooting of the UCLA Agni team’s final competition routine. The sequence combined a theatrical museum heist narrative, live-cued spotlight tracking, and a complex laser-dodge sequence inspired by Ocean’s Twelve. Operating under extreme time constraints with minimal rehearsal time for the technical crew, the cast and production team executed the multi-stage finale under the watch of choreographers cueing lighting adjustments in real time over headsets.

Supporting Data and Production Logistics

The scale of Best of the Best demanded extraordinary technical precision across multiple departments:

Visual Mapping: Director Lena Khan collaborated with music supervisor Kier Lehman to ensure the narrative could be "listened to," crafting remixes that bridged contemporary sounds with classic South Asian cultural touchstones.
Laser Rigging: Cinematographer Adam Carboni replaced initial yarn rehearsals—used to map out the characters’ path through a security grid—with 50-watt static lasers to achieve proper exposure for wide shots.
Set Complexity: The climax required the management of massive physical elements, including heavy museum walls and dynamic set pieces that dancers had to leap through and maneuver safely.
Physical Toll: The cast underwent rigorous athletic conditioning comparable to running a 10K, performing complex lifts, rapid transitions, and heavy prop handling under the pressure of single-take requirements.

Official Responses and Creative Insights

The unique collaborative structure of the production allowed heads of various departments to heavily influence the film’s visual and emotional vocabulary.

Director Lena Khan emphasized the narrative weight assigned to the choreography:

"So we had this line graph of the journeys of every major relationship or team in the film… And, of course, Maya and Anjali’s journey takes the most atypical route because they’re going from codependency to attachment issues to attention to having a healthier, more loving and supportive relationship."

Cinematographer Adam Carboni highlighted the fusion of practical tricks and grand scale:

"We couldn’t just throw scale at every dance and expect it to be compelling. Instead, we brainstormed ways to create unexpected moments using optical illusions, hard-rigged camera mounts, mirror reflections, and simple in-camera tricks."

Choreographer Makenzie Dustman noted the rarity of being integrated into the foundational writing stages:

"As choreographers, you are normally not integrated into pre-production and designing these scenes. It’s very rare… To be woven into that process as choreographers is so rare, and they were so generous with all of us, because that’s just not something you get."

Co-choreographer Joya Kazi reflected on the emotional resonance of the final duet between the two female leads:

"The day that we filmed that, there was not a dry eye in the room. I saw grown men crying, and it just makes you feel like the work that you put out as an artist — it’s so precious, and when people receive it and feel it, that’s the whole point of being in this line of work."

Implications for the Genre

Best of the Best marks a significant step forward for South Asian representation in mainstream Western cinema, specifically within the dance-film subgenre. By avoiding flat, generalized pastiches of Bollywood culture and instead grounding its narrative in the hyper-specific, fiercely competitive world of collegiate dance circuits, the film sets a new benchmark for how movement can service character development.

Furthermore, the production’s cross-departmental integration—breaking down traditional silos between writers, directors, cinematographers, and choreographers—offers a compelling blueprint for future musical and dance-centric features. By treating dance not merely as an aesthetic interruption, but as the primary language of emotional evolution, Best of the Best expands the technical boundaries of what hybrid cinematic storytelling can achieve.