Best of the Best

As high school seniors, friends Maya and Anjali perform at their school talent show. The performance is well-received, until a drone that Maya programs malfunctions, striking her in the head. The incident goes viral.

As freshman, Maya and Anjali adjust to life at UCLA. Both face embarrassing incidents on the first day of school. Maya is referred to as "drone strike girl" on account of the viral clip, and Anjali is struck by her mother after a disagreement about financing college. They attend a mixer hosted by the South Asian Student Association (SASA), where Maya encounters a childhood friend Arjun, who is now a sophomore at UCLA. Anjali expresses interest in joining UCLA Agni, the school's Bollywood-fusion dance team, but is scared away by the time commitment. She is attracted to Ronak, the leader of UCLA Agni.

Maya signs both of them up for Agni's tryouts, seeing herself as a potential lead dancer for the upcoming season and having noticed Anjali's interest in Ronak. They both make the team, which involves intense practice with the primary motivation of defeating Agni's rivals, the team USC Tamasha, at the national Best of the Best dance competition. When the team is brainstorming a theme and lead dancers for their competition performance, Maya is outspoken about her skepticism for Ronak's idea. She nominates herself to be female lead, and also encourages Anjali to tryout as well. The final decision is to be made with a vote.

After another incident where Maya goes against Ronak's directions when performing at a fraternity, Ronak expresses his frustration that Maya is undermining him, without knowing Maya is overhearing the conversation. He and other senior members of the team decide to ignore the vote, which Maya wins, to give the lead role to Anjali, citing Anjali's likability and "lead energy". Maya is hurt by this, but refrains from revealing this information to Anjali, as Anjali is very excited to be performing with Ronak, who is selected as the male lead.

Maya continues to clash with Ronak as they prepare for the Best of the Best regional qualifier event, where the team need to perform well to secure entry into the national competition. With Arjun's help, Maya builds a prop for use in their dance routine, but adds a fog machine without consulting the team first. During the competition, despite Anjali's request to stick to the routine, Maya uses the fog machine after seeing members in the audience bored, and the lack of visibility caused by the fog ruins the performance. The team fails to qualify for nationals, and Anjali gets her hair damaged in the chaos of the performance. Maya is cut from the team by Ronak as a result of her insubordination, but Anjali convinces Ronak to give her another chance.

To attempt to make nationals, the team has to raise funds to attend another regional qualifier. The team decide to participate in a date auction fundraiser held by SASA by auctioning off dates with their members. Maya, who is insecure about her appearance, asks Anjali to bid on her if no one else does, but Anjali forgets in the aftermath of the team successfully raising the funds. Maya feels humiliated when no one bids on her, until Arjun appears and bids on Maya. He admits his feelings for her and they begin a relationship.

Due to prioritizing the dance team, Anjali gets placed on academic probation, and faces an ultimatum from her mother to either improve her grades by the end of term or to transfer to community college. She quits the dance team, and Maya is given the female lead role, to the annoyance of Ronak.

At the second regional competition, the performance goes well, and UCLA Agni qualify for nationals. Tension from the competition cause Maya and Ronak to fight, and Maya confronts Ronak about replacing her as lead with Anjali. The two however reconcile and express admiration for each other's vision for the team. While celebrating qualifying for the national competition, Maya inadvertently reveals Anjali's academic probation and is seen dancing with Ronak on the competition livestream, which hurts both Arjun and Anjali.

Anjali confronts Maya about the livestream, and reveals her sense of betrayal that Maya would take the lead role from her, which prompts Maya to reveal the rigged vote, as well as her feelings of insecurity about always being less likable than Anjali, culminating in Maya quitting the team as well. Arjun also feels betrayed by how Maya seeks approval from Ronak, and ignores the validation he provides.

Without both Maya and Anjali, UCLA Agni struggles to prepare for nationals. Eventually, Maya apologizes to the team for being headstrong and rejoins, and Anjali, no longer on probation, rejoins as well. Ronak allows Maya to pick the theme for their national performance, and suggests that Maya and Anjali be the leads.

Before the final performance, Maya and Anjali reconcile and reaffirm their friendship. During the performance, a technical difficulty leaves the stage without power, but Maya and Anjali continue the performance and win the competition. Maya and Arjun reconcile after the performance.