Picture Credits: Netflix / John Nacion/Variety via Getty Images
Best of the Best delivers on the big finale. From director Leena Khan and co-writers Hasan Minhaj and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, the sports college comedy gives the two best friends, Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia), an emotionally, thematically and visually satisfying dance to perform at the end of the movie. You believe in the win.
It’s quite an original dance, too, bringing art and a heist together. The characters retrieve, not steal, the infamous diamond England stole from India, the Koh-i-Noor. Never returned, it remains a part of the British Crown Jewels.
Recently, the filmmakers behind Best of the Best took What’s On Netflix behind the scenes of putting together the finale.
How did you decide on a dance heist for the big finale?
Leena Khan: Ooh, you tell us first how it came about.
Prashanth Venkataramanujam: Yeah. Oh, I mean, this is Hasan and I’s subtle Patriot Act–
Hasan Minhaj: Totally, yeah. You want to get into the Nat Geo Wikipedia?
Prashanth Venkataramanujam: It’s like, this is a big part of South Asian culture. It’s like all the wealth that Britain stole from India. So this constant conversation always bubbling in the culture of just like, “Should we be protesting more for them to give stuff back?” And I think so much of this movie was written from the standpoint of wanting to understand our intrinsic value and to stop harping on and fixating on what was taken from us. And whether that be a loss or whether that be lead being stolen or something like that. It was just all like, “Oh, where does our internal worth come from? Let’s focus on that.” Leena took it from there to interpret it visually.
Leena Khan: You did that so succinctly. There’s so much to the end. The biggest thing in the gift of the script these guys had always had things. Even though they’re such witty guys, everything had such meaning to it. And so, you could always have layers because everything had a foundation and meaning. And this was something that was so special for the culture, but also the characters. These characters who’ve been chasing everybody’s approval the whole time, I was like, “I need a moment where everybody feels like they are dancing just for themselves. I need something where it feels like we are going back to what is the richest part of our culture and not just for everybody else’s likes or whatever.”
So I was like, “Instead of doing the giant pop song at the end, we do one of the greatest composers we have in South Asia, A.R. Rahman, doing a song, and people coming back to their culture and something that’s original and something that’s special and feels something. And then having the moment where it’s dark and their duet where you see the final form of their friendship and how are they supporting each other through movement.” So it was just taking all those things and meaning that you had been latching onto through the movie, and how do you kind of have the biggest climax for it that makes you feel something.
Hasan Minhaj: And Leena’s brilliance was showing that visually. Hey, should they return the Koh-i-Noor diamond? No, we’re going to destroy it. And the destroying of that diamond means, “Hey, we’re going to reclaim our identity and create something new in spite of it. Keep the diamond. We have something new to offer now on our own terms.”
Best of the Best. (Featured center) Joya Kazi as Judge Best of the Best. Cr. Emily V. Aragones/Netflix © 2026
Leena, how many shooting and prep days did you have?
Hasan Minhaj: Leena, get into team choreo.
Leena Khan: I need to give all my props to my choreo team, Phillip Chbeeb, Makenzie Dustman, and Joya Kazi, and my cinematographer, Adam Carboni, because we had to plan those things. So a typical Bollywood dance you shoot in about four days. We usually had one, maybe one and a half. So, our prep had to be insane. I had a bunch of peg dolls. And then I got one of those little cameras from Etsy so that you could actually do the tiny little camera and have it go around.
And then we would edit it, and then on the day something would go wrong, so we’d have to change half of the things. But it was a lot of intense prep with like 20 dancers. And then just figuring out, like, “There’s a lot of stuff in that. Theme is light.” So you have to figure out, like, sometimes they’re dancing in the dark, but you can’t be truly in the dark. What do the diamonds represent? How can they hold them? How can they hide them? So there’s a lot of logistics that went into all those things. And it was just a lot of madness.
Hasan Minhaj: The challenge that she had to do as the director was, you have to honor the choreography of all these incredible dance forms that people are very passionate about and then add something new to it, which is you worked with team choreo to give it the stunts, the backflips, the extra stuff that really pops cinematically. So you combined almost like action stunt choreography with dance choreography.
Leena Khan: Oh my God, I forgot the walls move.
Hasan Minhaj: That’s what I’m saying.
Leena Khan: The walls move. We had to build prototypes of the walls, and then people are hiding behind the walls. There’s some folks who have to change clothes midway so they can sneak behind them and go somewhere else.
Hasan Minhaj: Go through paintings. People are going through paintings.
Leena Khan: Go through paintings. Oh, wait, they are dressed like paintings. The makeup makes them look like the paintings. That one took a lot of prep. You have to push the statues, and you have to push the walls. And then they have to be walls that you can still climb onto because the dancers are hiding behind them.
Prashanth Venkataramanujam: And the other thing, we talked a little bit about this, but each dance is a little story, and it’s a story within a story. So the little meta story has to make sense in the greater narrative of where the girls are in their relationship. And there has to be continuity, not just within the dance, that little story of the dance, but also continuity with the larger relationship the girls are going through.
Leena Khan: So if you can see, and folks who know Female Friendship, you can watch the movie on mute and just watch the two girls. I think you can see the stages of their friendship through movement in their dances. And so at the end is their final form of what a beautiful, healthy friendship is together.
Best of the Best. (L to R) Hasan Minhaj (Producer), Lena Khan (Director) in Best of the Best. Cr. Emily V. Aragones/Netflix © 2026
Hasan and Prashanth, you both go way back and also performed together in college at Syracuse.
Hasan Minhaj: Oh my God. Yeah, we did stand-up together in Syracuse.
Did you draw on your own college friendship? What do you two really appreciate about the creative and personal bond you have that maybe you brought to the women in Best of the Best?
Hasan Minhaj: You’re asking me a very emotional question. I can’t be crying this early in the morning. To me, I’m saying this as someone who has had a longtime collaborator. I’ve been married for 11 years. I’ve been married to him for 15 years.
Hey, dare I say I’ve been married to the game for 20 years.
But to me, it’s really about, can I find someone to ride with? And when I think about my intimate relationships, my personal relationships, my professional relationships, will you ride with me? Meaning, do you have the composure, the tenacity, the toughness, and the heart to go through tough times with me and the courage?
And I got to meet Leena recently. This is a new friendship in my life, but you are a ride-or-die. She rides for people. It moved me to tears how lucky I am to meet her at the time we met. Maybe I’m 37, 38 years old to work with a director like this who will – I don’t want to curse – who will effing ride with you. She rides for us and our cast. What a joy it’s been to have a ride-or-die.
Leena Khan: But this is a testament to you guys. They gave me the script. I only take projects that I super believe in because I get lost in them. So you can only fight for a project every day if you’ve been given a project that means something that matters. And I think that’s kudos to these guys that I’m like, this means something. It matters. They give me something that can be special for so many people. Then you fight for it.
Best of the Best. (L to R) Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Maya in Best of the Best. Cr. Emily V. Aragones/Netflix © 2026
