Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s 'Best of the Best is basically 'Step Up 2' with a Bollywood twist

Catching up to the whole young adult drama wave, Netflix has now announced Best of the Best, a new coming-of-age dramedy starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia. The film follows childhood best friends Maya and Anjali, who head to UCLA and join the university’s competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team. Their goal is simple: to make it to the US Championship. Getting there, however, involves plenty of rivalry, pressure, friendship drama, and the general chaos that comes with figuring out your life in college. 

If the whole competitive dance setup is reminding you of Step Up 2: The Streets, you're not alone. That 2008 film had its own crew, rivalries, underground dance battles, and a very serious final performance. If you remember Andie being sent to a stuffy Maryland school, accidentally finding her people through an underground dance crew, and eventually turning the whole thing into one giant dance showdown, Best of the Best seems to be playing on the same vibe. 

The difference here is that instead of street dance crews, we are getting Bollywood fusion and two South Asian best friends at the centre of the story. It is also very much in the same comfort-watch territory as the dance movies we grew up watching, where everyone is stressed about a competition, friendships are tested, and somehow every problem can be solved with a really good choreographed routine.

The Bollywood dance angle is what makes Best of the Best particularly interesting. Competitive Bollywood-fusion dance has a huge presence in colleges across the US, especially within South Asian student communities, but it is not something we get to see explored very often in mainstream movies. And in this show, it is not just a background theme. The dance competition is central to Maya and Anjali's story, while the film also looks at their friendship, cultural identity, and the slightly terrifying process of growing up. 

And yes, there is a pretty stacked cast. Alongside Ramakrishnan and Kedia, the film features Hasan Minhaj, Janina Gavankar, Ankur Rathee, Chaneil Kular, Lilly Singh, Nico Greetham, Saara Chaudry, Sasha Bhasin, and several others. Minhaj is also a co-writer and producer on the film, alongside Prashanth Venkataramanujam, while Lena Khan, who directed Flora & Ulysses, is behind the camera.

For Maitreyi, this is also a return to the streaming world that made her a household name. After playing Devi Vishwakumar in Never Have I Ever, she has appeared in projects including The Twits and Freakier Friday. This time, she is playing Maya, one half of the film's central friendship, while Priyanka Kedia plays Anjali. 

The dance scenes should also be a major part of the fun. Ramakrishnan and Kedia reportedly went through a four-month dance bootcamp for the movie, while choreographers Phillip Chbeeb, Makenzie Dustman, and Joya Kazi worked on the routines. The filmmakers reportedly wanted the choreography to actually move the story forward rather than simply stopping everything for a big dance number.

So, if you like your coming-of-age movies with a little competition, a lot of friendship, and enough dance sequences to make you consider joining a college dance team at the ripe old age of 29, Best of the Best might be worth adding to your binge list when it premieres on September 18, 2026. And while the Step Up 2 comparison is hard to ignore, this movie looks like it has its own thing going for it: Bollywood fusion, South Asian friendship dynamics, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in a dance movie? We're all seated.

Lead image: Netflix

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