Movies like Bhishma (1962)
The best movies like Bhishma (1962) are The Last Rifleman (2023), The Book of Daniel (2013) and Jimmy's Hall (2014). If Bhishma hooked you with its history and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)8.0/10 from 251 votes
- NewestEleanor the Great (2025)Released 2025
- In TeluguRangasthalam (2018)Also in Telugu
The Last Rifleman (2023)
A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Book of Daniel (2013)
Taken into slavery after the fall of Jerusalem in 605 B.C., Daniel is forced to serve the most powerful king in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. Faced with imminent death, Daniel proves himself a trusted Advisor and is placed among the king's wise men. Threatened by death at every turn Daniel never ceases to serve the king until he is forced to choose between serving the king or honoring God. With his life at stake, Daniel has nothing but his faith to stand between him and the lions' den.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJimmy's Hall (2014)
In Depression-era Ireland, Jimmy Gralton returns home after a decade's exile in America. Witnessing the levels of poverty and oppression, his inner activist reawakens and he seeks to reopen the dance hall that led to his deportation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisViceroy's House (2017)
In 1947, Lord Mountbatten assumes the post of last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people, living upstairs at the house which was the home of British rulers, whilst 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants lived downstairs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJulia (1977)
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hill (2023)
The story of Rickey Hill, who overcomes his physical disability and repairs his relationship with his father in a quest to become a major league baseball (MLB) player.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRadium Girls (2020)
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWake of the Red Witch (1948)
Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
SnoozefestMovies like thisKings of the Sun (1963)
In order to flee from powerful enemies, young Mayan king Balam leads his people north across the Gulf of Mexico to the coast of what will become the United States. They build a home in the new land but come into conflict with a tribe of Native Americans led by their chief, Black Eagle, while both Balam and Black Eagle fall in love the beautiful Mayan princess Ixchel.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMansfield Park (2007)
Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRangasthalam (2018)
Chitti Babu begins to suspect his elder brother's life is in danger after they team up to lock horns with their village president and overthrow his unlawful 30 year old regime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Color of Friendship (2000)
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEleanor the Great (2025)
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWon't Back Down (2012)
Jamie Fitzpatrick and Nona Alberts are two women from opposites sides of the social and economic track, but they have one thing in common: a mission to fix their community's broken school and ensure a bright future for their children. The two women refuse to let any obstacles stand in their way as they battle a bureaucracy that's hopelessly mired in traditional thinking, and they seek to re-energize a faculty that has lost its passion for teaching.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAravinda Sametha... Veera Raghava (2018)
A young scion of a powerful family with a long history of violence decides to put an end to the bloodshed which leads him to a path of self discovery.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlue Chips (1994)
Pete Bell, a college basketball coach is under a lot of pressure. His team isn't winning and he cannot attract new players. The stars of the future are secretly being paid by boosters. This practice is forbidden in the college game, but Pete is desperate and has pressures from all around.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChatrapathi (2005)
Sivaji and his family are uprooted from their community in Sri Lanka and wind up as bonded labourers in Vishakhapatnam. Like his legendary namesake, he rises up to become the saviour of the oppressed.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010)
Amy Pond and Rory Williams are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way the Eleventh Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisAndha Yug (1989)
"Andha Yug"—literally 'Age of Blindness'—is an allegorical play written in the aftermath of the Partition of India by Shri Dharamvir Bharti. Rooted in the epic Mahabharata, this landmark 1989 Delhi performance was staged for the Nehru Shatabdi Samaroh Festival and has since been preserved by the Natya Shodh Sansthan, Kolkata (NSS). Set on the final day of the Kurukshetra war, the narrative chronicles the end of the Dvapara Yuga and the immediate descent into the dark Kali Yuga, triggered by Lord Krishna's demise. This five-act masterpiece explores the moral collapse, cycles of revenge, and psychological trauma of war. It depicts the pyrrhic reality of the Kali Yuga—the worst, shortest, and darkest of the four cosmic ages—in which recursive violence degrades the fabric of civilization, blinding individuals to reason as they are forced to reckon with the devastation's fallout.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Karnabharam : A Mohanlal Masterclass. (2001)
A masterclass in stage performance preserved on screen. Mohanlal strips away all cinematic artifice, relying entirely on his eyes, posture, and a voice dripping with heavy, inescapable fatalism to embody Karna on the eve of Kurukshetra.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Vera (2022)
Vera has young woman as the main heroine, who is in the jaws of the war spy network in WW2 and also of the patriarchal society in the Balkans with full of powerful, arrogant men with whom she deals bravely and arrogantly.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Srimadhvirata Parvamu (1979)
It is an Epic story based on the book Virata Parva of Mahabharatha. After 12 years of Vanavasam, the Pandavas spend their 13th year of exile the Agnaadhavasam in an incognito state with disguised identities at the court of Virata. Follows how they end their exile & the marriage celebration of Uttara and Abhimanyu.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kannan Karunai (1971)
Kannan Karunai is a 1971 remake Indian Tamil-language Hindu Epic film directed by N. T. Rama Rao.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Aayudh (2025)
In 2094, a ruthless dictator controls India with an iron fist. Trapped in a militarised zone, a group of revolutionaries must escape before the crushing weight of despair destroys them from within.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Daana Veera Soora Karna (1977)
A retelling of Mahabharata through the perspectives of KARNA and DURYODHANA. The film uses dialogue and poetry written in Classical Telugu/ Grandhika Basha.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sri Krishna Pandaveeyam (1966)
The film depicts the adolescent age of the Pandavas and Krishna and shows the events in the Mahabharata, focusing on the later chapters of Adi Parva and the first half of Sabha Parva.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Kalki 2898-AD (2024)
In the year 2898 AD, around 6000 years after Kurukshetra war, Ashwatthama gears up for his final battle of redemption at the sign of hope in a dystopian world and Bhairava, a wisecracking and self-interested bounty hunter, tired of the perilous life becomes the hurdle in the process.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSairandhri (1933)
Set during the Pandavas’ exile in the Mahabharata, the story focuses on Draupadi living incognito as a maid-in-waiting named Sairandhari in King Virata’s palace. The arrogant Keechak becomes obsessed with her, prompting Bhima (disguised as a cook) to intervene and kill Keechak to protect her honor.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Like Bhishma and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Bhishma?
The closest matches to Bhishma are The Last Rifleman (2023), The Book of Daniel (2013) and Jimmy's Hall (2014). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Bhishma?
Start with The Last Rifleman (2023), the closest match to Bhishma.
What is the highest-rated movie like Bhishma?
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol (2010), rated 8.0/10 by 251 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Bhishma?
Eleanor the Great (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Telugu movies like Bhishma?
Yes: Rangasthalam (2018), Aravinda Sametha... Veera Raghava (2018) and Chatrapathi (2005).
How are movies similar to Bhishma chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Bhishma, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.