Potomac’s Shreya Navile makes Netflix debut in dance comedy ‘Best of the Best’

Your streaming plans this weekend could have a local twist.

Netflix on Friday released “Best of the Best,” a comedy feature film following two childhood best friends who enroll in UCLA and discover the world of competitive Bollywood-fusion dance.

The cast features Shreya Navile, a Potomac native and Winston Churchill High School alum who learned classical Indian dance in her mother’s Montgomery County studio.

She’s said she doesn’t consider her character the film’s villain. But she’s not not the villain.

“I do some villainous things, as everybody in the movie does, but I think my character doesn’t really have anything to lose except this competition,” Navile said.

She plays Deepica, the team captain, who often acts as a foil to team newcomers Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan of Netflix’s “Never Have I Ever”) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia of “Disclosure Day”) as the UCLA dance crew ventures to win the highly competitive national “Best of the Best” dance competition.

The cast also includes comedian Hasan Minhaj (“The Daily Show”) and YouTuber and TV personality Lilly Singh (“A Little Late with Lilly Singh.”)

The child of immigrants, Navile was principal dancer at the studio her mother — Deepti Mukund Navile — ran in Potomac, the Natyabhoomi School of Dance. That’s not where Navile learned Bollywood-style moves.

The “Best” cast went through an “intense” boot camp of dance rehearsals for about a month and a half in summer 2025 before shooting in New York and New Jersey for two months.

“It was the best summer ever,” Navile, 29, said. “I felt like a college kid all over again.”

“Best of the Best” is “Pitch Perfect” meets “Step Up,” sprinkled with friendship troubles, boy drama and explosive Bollywood-fusion dance scenes.

“It’s a college comedy film. It’s not like we’re making ‘Oppenheimer’ — we’re chilling a little bit. We’re laughing,” she said. “It made things so fun.”

Moving the needle forward

“Best of the Best” is the rare Hollywood feature film with an almost entirely South Asian cast (there’s a running gag about every Bollywood team having “one random white person who just knows more about Indian culture than everyone else.”)

Navile said she is heartened by the increase in South Asian representation in the U.S. entertainment world. Stars such as Mindy Kaling (“The Office,” “The Mindy Project”), Jameela Jamil (“The Good Place”), Simone Ashley (“Bridgerton”), Hannah Simone (“New Girl”), Amita Rao (“Adults”) and Ramakrishnan, Navile said, have paved the way for films such as “Best” to get picked up by the largest subscription streaming service in the world.

Kaling’s career as an actor, writer, producer and TV show creator in particular has moved “the torch forward and created a whole other world of characters that all have their unique but relatable personalities,” Navile said.

She highlighted Kaling’s first major role, the dramatic, pop culture-obsessed Kelly Kapoor on “The Office.” She was the “blueprint” for Hollywood putting a spotlight on ”brown girls who have these dynamic, insane personalities,” as Navile put it.

She added: “I just hope we get to move that forward, too.”

Potomac on the big screen

Navile is the latest in a long line of successful performers from Potomac.

The affluent area has also produced Sylvester Stallone, “Insecure” creator and star Issa Rae, singer and “Gossip Girl” alum Taylor Momsen and actor Jon Bernthal (“The Walking Dead,” “The Bear”). TV show creator Darren Star based “Beverly Hills, 90210” on his experiences at Churchill. It’s also home to “Wonder Woman” star Lynda Carter and a lucrative “Real Housewives” franchise.

As a Churchill student, Navile sang in its show choirs Showstoppers and Simply Irresistible (think: “Glee”). The school’s annual “Blast” concert, a sprawling showcase of student singers, dancers and musicians, was where she caught the performing bug.

“It really felt like we were doing the coolest thing on the planet,” she said. “My entire career is chasing that feeling again.”

“Blast” director and Churchill teacher Matthew Albright recalled the “tremendous amount of talent and energy” that Navile brought to the shows.

“She was one of those students who really stood out as a performer, and it was clear even then how naturally she connected with an audience,” he said.

Navile studied theater at the Boston Conservatory, where she was the sole South Asian undergraduate. Then came the professional auditions, some modeling and a stint in an off-Broadway show directed by celebrated filmmaker Mira Nair, the mother of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Despite her classical dance training, Navile isn’t new to Bollywood dance. She and her friends would perform “all over Churchill,” she said.

“We were like, ‘Everyone has to see this. It’s so crazy. How do you not know what this is?’”

She said she feels the same way as Netflix releases “Best of the Best.”

“It’s nothing to explain or apologize for or ask for space. It’s grand, it’s huge and it’s epic. Here, enjoy.”