Netflix’s new movie Best of the Best is supposed to be about friendship, college and competitive Bollywood-fusion dance.
But viewers on Reddit quickly became distracted by something else.
Why does the movie keep treating Maya as the “less attractive” friend?
Because Maya is played by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan.
And a lot of viewers simply aren’t buying the premise.
Maya and Anjali Have Been Compared Their Whole Lives
Best of the Best follows childhood best friends Maya and Anjali as they enter UCLA and join the university’s competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team.
The two women are close, but they have spent years being compared.
Maya is smart, ambitious and outspoken.
Anjali is portrayed as warmer, more traditionally feminine and more immediately likable.
That difference becomes important when the dance team has to choose its female lead.
Maya believes she has worked for the opportunity.
Yet Anjali becomes the preferred choice — and physical attractiveness becomes part of the conversation.
That’s where some viewers started having a problem.
Reddit Had One Obvious Question
One of the most common reactions was essentially:
Are we really supposed to believe Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is the unattractive friend?
Some viewers argued that the story simply doesn’t work visually.
Maya is fashionable, charismatic and played by an actress who was already the star of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever.
One Reddit commenter said the movie repeatedly tells the audience that Maya is overshadowed by Anjali, but what appears on screen doesn’t always support that idea.
Others agreed that the movie seems to tell us how people see Maya rather than convincingly showing us why.
But another group of viewers saw something deeper.
Maybe It Was Never Really About Beauty
Several Reddit users argued that Maya isn’t being judged purely by her face.
She’s outspoken.
She’s competitive.
She challenges people.
And she doesn’t always make herself easy to like.
That changes the question completely.
Maybe Best of the Best isn’t really saying:
“Maya isn’t pretty.”
Maybe it’s showing how a woman can be perceived as less desirable when she doesn’t behave the way people expect her to.
One commenter specifically connected Maya’s treatment to the experience of being an outspoken South Asian woman.
Another pointed toward the value sometimes placed on softer personalities and more conventional beauty standards within Indian families and communities.
Suddenly, a seemingly ridiculous casting choice becomes much more interesting.
The Comparison Goes Beyond Looks
Maya and Anjali aren’t only compared over beauty.
Anjali also lives in Maya’s shadow.
Maya is academically gifted and earns a full scholarship, while Anjali struggles with expectations of her own.
That means both women have something the other doesn’t.
Beauty.
Grades.
Popularity.
Confidence.
Approval.
And underneath their friendship is something uncomfortable but extremely familiar:
What happens when the person you love most is also the person everyone keeps comparing you to?
That may explain why the story is connecting with some viewers despite criticism of its execution.
One Reddit user even described having a childhood best friend and experiencing similar comparisons in real life.
That May Be the Real Story of Best of the Best
Netflix describes Best of the Best as a movie about sisterhood, friendship and self-acceptance.
And perhaps the dance competition is only the surface.
Maya doesn’t simply want to become the best dancer.
She wants to stop being measured against Anjali.
And Anjali needs room to become more than “the pretty one.”
That’s why the Reddit argument over Maitreyi Ramakrishnan’s appearance is more interesting than it first seems.
Of course Maya is attractive.
Maybe that’s exactly why the question matters.
How much of being considered “attractive” has ever been about appearance alone?