The best of the best Delivers in the big finale. From director Lena Khan and co-writers Hasan Minhaj and… Prashanth VenkataramanojamThe college sports comedy gives two best friends, Maya (Maitri Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia), an emotionally, thematically and visually satisfying dance to perform at the end of the film. You believe in winning.

It is also an original dance, bringing art and theft together. The characters recover, not steal, the infamous diamond stolen by England from India, the Koh-i-Noor. Never returned, it remains part of the British Crown Jewels.

Lately, filmmakers are behind The best of the best What’s On Netflix took behind the scenes to put together the finale.

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How did you decide to steal the dance in the big finale?

Lina Khan: Oh, first tell us how that happened.

Prashanth Venkataramanojam: Yes. Oh, I mean that’s good I’m subtle Patriot Act–

Hasan Minhaj: Totally, yes. Want to access Wikipedia Nat Geo?

Prashanth Venkataramanojam: It’s as if this is a big part of South Asian culture. It’s like all the wealth that Britain stole from India. So this constant conversation is always simmering in a culture of like, “Should we protest more in order to give things back?” And I think a lot of this movie was written from the point of view of wanting to understand our intrinsic worth and stop harping on what was taken from us and fixating on it. Whether it’s losing or stealing bullets or something like that. It was all like: “Oh, where does our inner value come from? Let’s focus on that.” Lena took it from there to interpret it visually.

Lina Khan: I did it very succinctly. There’s a lot to finish. The biggest thing about the gift of a screenplay is that these guys always had stuff. Even though they were brilliant men, everything made so much sense. Thus, you can always have layers because everything has a basis and meaning. That was something very special for the culture, but also for the characters. These characters who were chasing everyone’s approval all the time, I was like, “I need a moment where everyone feels like they’re dancing just for themselves. I need something where we feel like we’re going back to what is the richest part of our culture and not just for what other people like or whatever.”

So I was like, “Instead of doing a giant pop song at the end, we’re doing a song by one of our greatest South Asian composers, R Rahman, and people are going back to their culture and something authentic and something special and feeling something. Then we have a moment where it’s dark and their duet where you see the final form of their friendship and how they support each other through movement.” So it was just taking all those things and meanings that you were holding on to throughout the movie, and how you get the biggest climax that makes you feel something.

Hasan Minhaj: And Lena’s brilliance showed that visually. Wait, should they bring back the Koh Noor diamond? No, we will destroy it. And destroying that diamond means, “Hey, we’re going to reclaim our identity and create something new out of it. Keep the diamond. We have something new to offer now on our own terms.”

Lina, how many days of filming and preparation did you spend?

Hasan Minhaj: Lina, join the dance team.

Lina Khan: I need to give all my props to my dance team, Phillip Shebib, Mackenzie Dustman, Gioia Kazee, and cinematographer Adam Carbone, because we had to plan these things. So, you can shoot a typical Bollywood dance number in about four days. We usually had one, maybe one and a half. So, our setup had to be crazy. I had a collection of peg dolls. Then she got one of those little cameras from Etsy so she could make her own little camera and run it.

And then we edit it, and the next day something goes wrong, so we have to change half the stuff. But it required a lot of intense preparation with about 20 dancers. And then we find out, like, “There’s a lot of stuff in this. The subject matter is light.” So you have to discover, sometimes they dance in the dark, but you can’t really be in the dark. What does a diamond represent? How can they keep them? How can they hide them? So there’s a lot of logistics that goes into all of this stuff. It was just a lot of crazy.

Hasan Minhaj: The challenge she had to do as a director was, you have to respect the choreography of all the amazing dance forms that people love so much and then add something new to it, which is you worked with the dance team to give it the stunts, the backflips, the extra things that really stand out cinematically. I almost combined erotic choreography with dance choreography.

Lina Khan: Oh my God, I forgot that walls move.

Hasan Minhaj: That’s what I’m saying.

Lina Khan: The walls are moving. We had to build prototypes of walls, and then people would hide behind the walls. There are some people who have to change their clothes midway so they can sneak behind and go somewhere else.

Hasan Minhaj: Go through the panels. People pass the signs.

Lina Khan: Go through the panels. Oh, wait, they’re dressed like paintings. Makeup makes them look like paintings. This one took a lot of prep. You have to push statues, you have to push walls. And then they have to be walls that you can still climb on because the dancers are hiding behind them.

Prashanth Venkataramanojam: And the other thing is, we talked a little bit about this, but every dance is a little story, and it’s a story within a story. So the little meta story needs to make sense in the larger narrative about 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 that the girls are experiencing.

Lina Khan: So if you can see, people who know Women’s friendshipYou can watch the movie on silent mode and just watch the two girls. I think you can see the stages of their friendship through the movement in their dances. And so in the end it is the ultimate form of a beautiful and healthy friendship together.

Hassan and Prashanth, you both go back and performed together in college at Syracuse.

Hasan Minhaj: Oh, my God. Yes, we stood together in Syracuse.

Did you rely on your university friendship? What do you really appreciate about the creative and personal bond you have that you may have brought to women The best of the best?

Hasan Minhaj: You are asking me a very emotional question. I can’t cry this early in the morning. For me, I say this as someone who has had a long-time collaborator. I have been married for 11 years. I have been married to him for 15 years.

Hey, dare I say I’ve been married to the game for 20 years.

But for 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, perseverance, toughness, heart to go through the hard times with me, and courage?

I met Lina recently. This is a new friendship in my life, but you are ride or die. She rides for the people. It moved me to tears how lucky I was to have met her at the time we did. I’m probably 37 or 38 years old to work with a director like this who – I don’t want to curse – who will ride with you. She rides for us and for our team. What fun to have a ride or die.

Lina Khan: But this is a testament to you guys. Give me the script. I only take on projects that I strongly believe in because I get lost in them. So, you can’t fight for a project every day unless you’re given a project that means something important. And I think that’s kudos to these people like me, it means something. It matters. They gave me something that could be special to a lot of people. Then you fight for it.