“A lot of what I put in the book were models for conversations I wish grandparents and parents would have with their kids but don’t always know how to have. “We never had conversations around sexuality or anxiety or those kinds of things, but I had the most amazing conversations with him as a kid,” Pancholy said of his grandfather, who along with his grandmother, moved to the United States when the actor was in his teens. Rahul relies on his best friend Chelsea and his family for help with trying new things to figure out what he might be the best at. The character of Bhai was in many ways based on Pancholy’s own grandparents. In The Best At It by Maulik Pancholy, 12-year-old Rahul wants to find something he can be the best at in order to get Brett (who always makes fun of him) to leave him alone. He is also coming to terms with the fact that he has a crush on a popular football player. But as Rahul begins to get ready for the start of seventh grade, he finds himself struggling with anxiety and the taunts of the neighborhood bully. “The Best at It” tells the story of Rahul Kapoor, a middle school student in a small town in Indiana who loves hanging out with his best friend Chelsea and listening to his grandfather Bhai’s stories. “I think kids are pretty sophisticated when it comes to diversity and sexuality because they are surrounded by it in media in a way that we weren’t,” Pancholy, 45, said. HBO Max has won the rights to adapt The Best At It, 30 Rock alumnus Maulik Pancholy ’s acclaimed debut middle-grade novel about Rahul Kapoor, a gay Indian American teenager dealing with seventh grade, crushes and anxiety in small-town Indiana as he and his family seek to become the best versions of themselves.

Maulik pancholy the best at it