Naman Shrestha
Under the direction of Lena Khan, Netflix’s ‘Best of the Best’ is a coming-of-age comedy-drama movie that centers on two childhood best friends, Maya and Anjali, who attend the prestigious University of California, Los Angeles, together. Besides focusing on academics, the teenagers decide to join the college’s Bollywood dance team and participate in the fierce, cut-throat US Championship. As they prepare to take over the collegiate Bollywood dance competitions, Maya and Anjali must also navigate a series of personal challenges, such as the complications of young adulthood.
In the process, the two best friends’ powerful friendship is also tested to the limit. Featuring stellar performances from Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Priyanka Kedia, Hasan Minhaj, Ankur Rathee, Janina Gavankar, and Chaneil Kular, the teen drama film is a celebration of Bollywood fusion dance, with the UCLA campus, including its corridors and stages, serving as the primary setting.
Best of the Best Filming Locations
‘Best of the Best’ was primarily filmed in New Jersey, particularly in Jersey City and Montclair. According to reports, principal photography for the comedy drama commenced in late July 2025 and went on for less than two months before wrapping up in September of the same year. Describing it as “one hell of a summer,” Priyanka Kedia, who portrays Anjali, shared a few words of gratitude after the conclusion of the shoot. She stated, “…thank you to every single person who put their heart and soul into this with us. to all of our dancers, i can’t wait for the world to fall in love with you like i did. i wouldn’t have traded these last 4 months for anything — it’s been a dream come true.”
Jersey City, New Jersey
A significant chunk of ‘Best of the Best’ was lensed in Jersey City, the county seat of New Jersey’s Hudson County. The city doubled for Los Angeles, where the narrative is set, as the filming unit strategically utilized Jersey City’s streets and neighborhoods for shooting purposes. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, who essays the character of Maya, opened up about the physical demands of the role, as she hardly had any dance experience before the project.
She revealed that she had trained for about four months, which had a positive impact on her physically and mentally. Maitreyi told Broadway World, “I’ve never been more fit in my life, I didn’t like to sweat before this.” Apart from ‘Best of the Best,’ Jersey City has served as a prominent production location for numerous film and TV projects, such as ‘Happy Gilmore 2,’ ‘Being John Malkovich,’ ‘Roommates,’ ‘As Good as It Gets,’ ‘The Royal Tenenbaums,’ ‘Big Mistakes,’ and ‘The Simple Life.’
Montclair, New Jersey
For the purpose of shooting, the production team of ‘Best of the Best’ also set up camp in the township of Montclair, which is situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains. The scenes set at UCLA were actually taped on the campus of Montclair State University at 1 Normal Avenue, with UCLA banners tied to multiple street lights. You can spot the Alexander Kasser Theater in the backdrop of several outdoor scenes, involving Maya and Anjali. During a conversation with Women in Entertainment, the filmmaker Lena Khan was asked about the creative and technical challenges she faced while directing the dance sequences. “The challenge was giving each one its own identity, its own role in the emotional beats of the plot, usually with only a day to film it and a cast that wasn’t full of professional dancers,” she said.
Lena added, “How we pulled it off was borderline insane, but the time spent ideating the big-picture intention behind each dance — what should we feel in the movement, in the symbolism, what does this dance mean to these characters both narratively and viscerally — let us pivot fast when we had to.” Working closely with music supervisor Kier Lehman, the director built a diverse palette of remixes. “But more importantly, each dance needed its own energy, and I made sure to carry that energy myself — how I showed up, the vibe I set with cast and crew — so it matched what the scene needed. A dance built around a show of power got a different energy from me on set than one built around fractured relationships, and different again from one that called for reverence. That’s what came through on screen,” she concluded.
