Movies like Rakhwala (1989)
The best movies like Rakhwala (1989) are Lion (2016), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025). If Rakhwala hooked you, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSteven Universe: The Movie (2019)8.2/10 from 889 votes
- NewestA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)Released 2025
- In HindiBajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)Also in Hindi
Lion (2016)
A five-year-old Indian boy gets lost on the streets of Calcutta, thousands of kilometers from home. He survives many challenges before being adopted by a couple in Australia; 25 years later, he sets out to find his lost family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)
A young mute girl from Pakistan loses herself in India with no way to head back. A devoted man with a magnanimous spirit undertakes the task to get her back to her motherland and unite her with her family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025)
Sarah and David are single strangers who meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure together where they get to re-live important moments from their respective pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present... and possibly getting a chance to alter their futures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAbove the Shadows (2019)
A young woman who has faded to the point of becoming invisible must find her way back with the help of the one man who can see her.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBrahmāstra Part One: Shiva (2022)
The story of Shiva – a young man on the brink of an epic love, with a girl named Isha. But their world is turned upside down when Shiva learns that he has a mysterious connection to the Brahmāstra... and a great power within him that he doesn’t understand just yet - the power of Fire.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBhowani Junction (1956)
Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones seeks her true identity amid the chaos of the British withdrawal from India.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTumbbad (2018)
India, 1918. On the outskirts of Tumbbad, a cursed village where it always rains, Vinayak, along with his mother and his brother, care of a mysterious old woman who keeps the secret of an ancestral treasure that Vinayak gets obsessed with.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Passage to India (1984)
Cultural mistrust and false accusations doom a friendship in British colonial India between an Indian doctor, an Englishwoman engaged to marry a city magistrate, and an English educator.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSteven Universe: The Movie (2019)
Two years after bringing peace to the galaxy, Steven Universe sees his past come back to haunt him in the form of a deranged Gem who wants to destroy the Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMasaan (2015)
Four lives intersect along the Ganges: a low caste boy in hopeless love, a daughter ridden with guilt of a sexual encounter ending in a tragedy, a hapless father with fading morality, and a spirited child yearning for a family, long to escape the moral constructs of a small-town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness (2022)
A brave young animal explorer teams up with two trusty friends to find a powerful artifact before his greedy uncle can get his paws on it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAnastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020)
Anastasia Romanov escapes through a portal when her family is threatened by Vladimir Lenin, and she finds herself in the year 1988, befriended by a young American girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisTigertail (2020)
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDuck Duck Goose (2018)
After he’s grounded by an injury, a high-flying bachelor is saddled with two wide-eyed orphans as they come face-to-face with the dangers and beauty of the outside world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWonderstruck (2017)
The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Dragonslayer (2016)
In a fantasy world where magic is being superceded by technology, an orphaned teen discovers her destiny to become a dragonslayer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisUntamed Heart (1993)
Caroline, a young waitress who seems to have bad taste in men, is on her way home one night when thugs attempt to rape her. Adam, the mysterious busboy who works at the same diner, helps fight off the assailants, and she begins a relationship with him -- but not all their fellow Minnesotans are happy for them. Meanwhile, the couple face their own difficulties when Caroline finds about Adam's past, including his unique health condition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMythica: A Quest for Heroes (2014)
Stuck in a life of indentured servitude, Marek dreams of becoming a wizard. When she meets the beautiful priestess Teela in need of help, she offers her assistance and provides a motley troupe. Together they go in search of Teela's sister, who was kidnapped by a wild ogre.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Brave Little Toaster (1987)
A group of dated appliances, finding themselves stranded in a summer home that their family had just sold, decide to seek out their eight year old 'master'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPollyanna (1960)
A young girl comes to an embittered town and confronts its attitude with her determination to see the best in life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHis Father's Voice (2019)
A gifted male dancer separated from his musician father in childhood, must return to him, to be able to dance again.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Dear Maya (2017)
Anna and Ira prank a local woman by writing her letters from a secret admirer. The prank takes a more serious turn when the local women goes missing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Raabta (2017)
An inseparable couple Saira and Shiva find themselves in a complicated situation when a stranger claims to be her reincarnated lover from their previous lifetime, hellbent on destroying their relationship and winning her back.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisJudwaa 2 (2017)
Separated at birth and peculiarly connected via their reflexes, twins Prem and Raja are reunited with each other as they set out to take down the underground smuggling world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
SnoozefestMovies like thisBank Chor (2017)
A comic-caper, that tells the story of 3 morons trying to rob a bank who pick the worst day possible when everything that can go wrong, goes wrong and how they're inadvertently caught in the crossfire.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Good Newwz (2019)
Two couples with the same surnames pursue in-vitro fertilisation and wait for their upcoming babies. Trouble ensues when they find that the sperms of each couple have been mixed with each other.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisM.L.A. Natha Singh (2011)
This Punjabi Movie, M.L.A. Natha Singh is a political satire using Punjab as a backdrop,it is a funny perspective on the political scenario in Punjab. It has old punjabi style and humor..... with melodious punjabi songs.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Bobby Aur Rishi Ki Love Story (2025)
Set against the picturesque backdrop of Cambridge, the film follows the journey of Bobby and Rishi as they going through the complexities of love and life. The story revolves around their passionate romance, which faces numerous challenges and misunderstandings. Despite being separated by circumstances, their love remains strong. Years later, fate gives them a second chance to rekindle their relationship and overcome the obstacles that once tore them apart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Anhonee (1973)
Dr. Rekha admits a patient, Sunil, in her mental hospital and soon, he responds to the treatment and recovers. They fall in love with each other but everything is not as it seems to be.
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Love 86 (1986)
Laxmi Devi is a strict mother having two daughters named Leena and Isha. She wants them to get married in a prosperous and rich family with two brothers so that they can be together for life. But two orphaned boys named Omi and Vikram Doshi who are thieves by profession, fall for these two sisters. Now Laxmi Devi wants to control the fate of her daughters but can she do this?
Why it matches: Similar story and style
Like Rakhwala and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Rakhwala?
The closest matches to Rakhwala are Lion (2016), Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Rakhwala?
Start with Lion (2016), the closest match to Rakhwala.
What is the highest-rated movie like Rakhwala?
Steven Universe: The Movie (2019), rated 8.2/10 by 889 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Rakhwala?
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Hindi movies like Rakhwala?
Yes: Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), Brahmāstra Part One: Shiva (2022) and Tumbbad (2018).
How are movies similar to Rakhwala chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Rakhwala, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.