Hasan Minhaj<\/a> and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, who each competed in similar circuits growing up, the script drew Khan in even though she was not initially sure she would take on the project. Early on, she recalls mentioning it to a childhood friend, who was dismissive. \u201cBollywood competitions, really?\u201d the friend said, and made it seem like it was not that cool, according to Khan, who says the reaction reflects something broader. \u201cI think South Asians, especially in the diaspora, are so used to not even having our own self-respect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThat realization shaped how she approached the film\u2019s tone. \u201cWe have so much respect for the skill sets of other cultures. We\u2019re looking at kung fu, we\u2019re looking at these different arts. But when we look at our own, we\u2019re used to seeing ourselves as Apu or as the funny nerdy side characters,\u201d Khan says. She wanted the movie to carry a different posture entirely. \u201cWe can be proud of things that we do as South Asians,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\n\tMinhaj and Venkataramanujam drew on their own backgrounds for the script. Minhaj\u2019s wife danced competitively, and Venkataramanujam performed with an a cappella team called Chai Town, giving him firsthand knowledge of how consuming the competition circuit can become. Khan spent time with UCLA\u2019s own dance team and traveled to North Carolina to observe competitions in preparation.<\/p>\n
\n\tKhan\u2019s earlier work directing episodes of Netflix\u2019s \u201cNever Have I Ever\u201d fed into how she thinks about representation. \u201cWhen you have more than one of a minority character, then there\u2019s suddenly become real characters,\u201d she says, describing the shift that happens once side characters are allowed the same depth as anyone else. \u201cYou get to focus on the humanity between them, the things that become relatable to everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tCasting required actors who could carry both comedy and depth, and several, including Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, had never danced competitively before landing their roles. Khan recalls pushing Ramakrishnan toward a specific physical transformation during casting. \u201cI need you to give me some Channing Tatum energy. And then I was like, no, actually, I need you to do a Christian Bale on me. I need a complete athletic transformation,\u201d she says. Ramakrishnan went on to complete months of intensive dance training ahead of the shoot.<\/p>\n
\n\tKhan built the dance sequences with choreographers Phillip Chbeeb and Makenzie Dustman, with Joya Kazi credited as co-choreographer. Each number was approached with a single guiding question, she says: \u201cWhat is the essence we are trying to bring out in this particular moment?\u201d Where a typical Bollywood dance sequence gets five days to shoot, the production often had just one. The choreography also draws on multiple regional styles, including Kuthu, Bharatanatyam and Pakistani-influenced dance, reflecting the mix of identities on the fictional team.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/themes\/pmc-variety-2020\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tPriyanka Kedia, Lena Khan and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan on the sets of \u201cBest of the Best\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n
\n\tKhan, whose credits include the independent feature \u201cThe Tiger Hunter,\u201d says the industry\u2019s relationship to South Asian stories has shifted since that film came out in 2016, even as some structural limits remain. \u201cWe still don\u2019t have that many romances or romantic comedies with South Asians,\u201d she says, pointing out that South Asian men are often not given the chance to play the lead. The film flips that dynamic elsewhere in its own casting, she notes: \u201cThe nerdy minority character is actually a white guy. Like we have a token white guy.\u201d She also credits a wave of South Asian musicians and actors, including Joy Crookes, whose song she fought to include in the soundtrack, with making the film possible. \u201cAnd now we\u2019re like, well, we\u2019ve really made it when we make a movie that\u2019s just good,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat philosophy extended to how much cultural context the film explains for a global Netflix audience. Khan says she resisted pressure to over-explain South Asian references, trusting shows like \u201cNever Have I Ever\u201d to have already proven audiences do not need everything spelled out. \u201cAt some point this country and the world is just full of people in different cultures,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\n\tWorking with Minhaj and Venkataramanujam, both first-time feature writers, meant frequent creative disagreements, Khan says, but never without purpose. \u201cThere would be such a thoughtful reason that we were always fighting over why we\u2019re doing a certain thing, but it was never for a vapid reason,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd they\u2019re also just the most gracious people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tHasan Minhaj \u2013 \u201cBest of the Best\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n
\n\tLooking ahead, Khan says she is drawn to projects centered on overlooked people or subjects, alongside a personal passion project already underway. \u201cI\u2019m always on the hunt for that,\u201d she says, describing a search for stories she wishes already existed and a way to make them for a wide audience.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBest of the Best\u201d also stars Lilly Singh, Nihar Duvvuri, Nico Greetham, Amryn Khurana, Tanishq Joshi, Saara Chaudry and Sasha Bhasin. It is streaming now on Netflix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Competitive Bollywood fusion dance has thrived on American college campuses for decades, but it has rarely been the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[64,63,358527,134,95131,465622,344,435],"class_list":["post-896496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-best-of-the-best","tag-entertainment","tag-hasan-minhaj","tag-lena-khan","tag-movies","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}