A father’s hip-hop secret changes his son’s life in new family comedy ‘World’s Best’ on Disney+

HOLLYWOOD — In the new Disney+ movie “World's Best”, we meet 12 year old math genius Prem Patel. He's starting to overcome adversity as a teenager, and all Prem really wants is to be “cool” among his peers.

A family surprise just might make his dream come true. Prem discovers a secret about his late father: he was a famous rapper. This new bit of biographical info sets Prem on a new path to see if music and dance might be in his future… not just academia!

“World's Best” stars Utkarsh Ambudkar as “Ghost” dad… he also co-wrote the script, co-produced the film and co-wrote the original song

He saw the film as a “love story” for the family.

“We want kids to look at their parents and say, ‘Wow, they're probably trying really hard. And maybe I should loosen that up'. And we want parents to look at their kids and be like, ‘maybe I can listen, with a little more intention of my son's desires and wishes.' And instead of being afraid that they might get hurt, try your best to instill trust and faith in them,” said Ambudkar. “And that's hard to do. Parenting is no easy task.

Ambudkar said none of this would have worked without finding the right actor to play “Prem”. Enter Manny Magnus.

“We wrote a 13-year-old, 12-year-old boy who was supposed to have all this expertise. And up to that point, he wasn't there. And then Manny, luckily it just came through that work he was done and just broke it,” said Ambudkar.

Magnus even offers his big-screen Dad a hint or two when it comes to learning cool dance moves.

“He detained me,” said Ambudkar. “There was a lot of stuff like, ‘Hey, man, you missed this. I need you to elongate your legs. It's pas de bourrée, step ball change,' all of that. As much as I coached him on rapping, he taught me to dance. We hold each other accountable.”

“World's Best” debuts on Disney+ on June 23.

Disney is the parent company of this ABC station.