Movies like Manto (2018)
The best movies like Manto (2018) are The Current War (2018), Radium Girls (2020) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011). If Manto hooked you with its drama and history, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRichard Jewell (2019)7.4/10 from 2,840 votes
- NewestGiant (2026)Released 2026
- In HindiParmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018)Also in Hindi
The Current War (2018)
Electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse compete to create a sustainable system and market it to the American people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 thisSnow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011)
A story set in 19th century China and centered on the lifelong friendship between two girls who develop their own secret code as a way to contend with the rigid cultural norms imposed on women.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMunich - The Edge of War (2021)
At the tense 1938 Munich Conference, former friends who now work for opposing governments become reluctant spies racing to expose a Nazi secret.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRichard Jewell (2019)
Richard Jewell thinks quick, works fast, and saves hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lives after a domestic terrorist plants several pipe bombs and they explode during a concert, only to be falsely suspected of the crime by sloppy FBI work and sensational media coverage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisShattered Glass (2003)
Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisGiant (2026)
Follows Prince Naseem Hamed from his humble beginnings on the tough working-class streets of Sheffield and his discovery by Ingle, himself a steel industry worker turned boxing trainer. Their unlikely partnership, Naz’s unorthodox style, cocky persona, and sheer dominance in the ring propelled them to the top of boxing’s elite and unprecedented levels of global superstardom, all in the face of the rampant Islamophobia and racism of ’80s and 90’s Britain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBelfast (2021)
Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a momentous choice: hope the conflict will pass or leave everything they know behind for a new life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOrigin (2023)
While investigating the global phenomenon of caste and its dark influence on society, a journalist faces unfathomable personal loss and uncovers the beauty of human resilience.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEight Men Out (1988)
Buck Weaver and Hap Felsch are young idealistic players on the Chicago White Sox, a pennant-winning team owned by Charles Comiskey - a penny-pinching, hands-on manager who underpays his players and treats them with disdain. And when gamblers and hustlers discover that Comiskey's demoralized players are ripe for a money-making scheme, one by one the team members agree to throw the World Series. But when the White Sox are defeated, a couple of sports writers smell a fix and a national scandal explodes, ripping the cover off America's favorite pastime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Call to Spy (2020)
The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJobs (2013)
The story of Steve Jobs' ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (2022)
Follow the launch of Lamborghini’s career as a manufacturer of tractors, a creator of military vehicles during World War II, and the designer of Lamborghini cars, which he launched in 1963 as the high-end sports car company Automobili Lamborghini.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMank (2020)
1930s Hollywood is reevaluated through the eyes of scathing social critic and alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he races to finish the screenplay of Citizen Kane.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVictoria & Abdul (2017)
Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Dinner with Hervé (2018)
An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Audrey Hepburn Story (2000)
The film spans from Hepburn's early childhood to the 1950s which details her life as a Dutch ballerina, coming to grips with her parents' divorce, and enduring life in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands during World War II. She then settles in the U.S. where she succeeds in making it big as a movie actress, in such movies as Breakfast at Tiffany's.
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 thisBobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004)
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisAn Irrepressible Woman (2020)
1940, Jeanne Reichenbach turns her back on a peaceful life to link her destiny to Léon Blum. She's been loving him since her teenage years, and is ready to sacrifice her freedom to mary him at Buchenwald, where he's held prisoner. They will survive together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018)
A look at India's second confidential nuclear test series at Pokhran lead by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, during the time of PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFactory Girl (2006)
In the mid-1960s, wealthy debutant Edie Sedgwick meets artist Andy Warhol. She joins Warhol's famous Factory and becomes his muse. Although she seems to have it all, Edie cannot have the love she craves from Andy, and she has an affair with a charismatic musician, who pushes her to seek independence from the artist and the milieu.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPollock (2000)
In August of 1949, Life Magazine ran a banner headline that begged the question: "Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" The film is a look back into the life of an extraordinary man, a man who has fittingly been called "an artist dedicated to concealment, a celebrity who nobody knew." As he struggled with self-doubt, engaging in a lonely tug-of-war between needing to express himself and wanting to shut the world out, Pollock began a downward spiral.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHimalay Putra (1997)
Himalay Putra (the son of the Himalayas) starts with the love story of Suraj (Vinod Khanna) and Seema (Hema Malini). Seema being the daughter of a rich businessman and Suraj being a police inspector with a modest income, are destined to face the objection of Seema's father (Amrish Puri) to their marriage. Amrish creates misunderstanding in Seema's heart for Suraj and she starts looking upon him as a greedy person who discarded her love for the sake of money. But the problem is that she has already got pregnant through him and after the demise of her father, she moves to the region of the Himalayas, giving birth to Abhay (Akshaye Khanna). Abhay grows up misunderstanding his father by learning his mother's version of the past events. He falls in love with Esha (Anjala Zaveri) who is the daughter of their neighbor - Major Mathur (Satish Shah) but love is less important for him. What is more important for him is to locate his father and settle scores with him for his mother's sorrows.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Lights! Camera! Murder! (2021)
Even after being warned about the danger, a top fashion team plans a murder mystery film shoot at a secluded spooky castle. Alas, nobody in the crew likes or trusts each other. Is it just a coincidence that real murders are taking place just as in the script or was it all planned?? Only the script writer could tell but. – unfortunately he too commits suicide on this cursed night
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Selim (2019)
In Berlin, Selim suddenly gets to accompany the famous opera diva Maikki Järnefelt to a concert. Despite Maikki's family, they fall in love on a concert tour. When the awkward triangle drama is over, this bohemian couple loves deeply and struggles hard.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Sindoor (1987)
Laxmi is half of a famous singing couple when both her relationship and career are destroyed by the jealous plotting of her husband , Vijay. Years later, Laxmi is widowed and raising a stepdaughter, Lalita, when Vijay returns to the scene to meddle in her new family's affairs and once again threaten her domestic happiness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Massey Sahib (1986)
In a small, tribal district town of Central India in 1929, Francis Massey is the 'English Type Babu' at the Deputy Commissioner's office. Massey believes that because he is Christian and can speak English, he is a cut above other Indians and not very different from the white sahibs he serves. For a man of lowly birth, Massey has risen to a dizzying height. On the other hand, he acknowledges no realistic limits to his own free spirit. Whenever the real world fails him, he improvises - boldly, imaginatively. Alas, the unsmiling, implacable machinery of the Raj has no room for Massey Sahib, the travelling salesman, road foreman and entertainer. Right up to the bitter end, Massey believes that Deputy Commissioner Adam Sahib will step in and save him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
Fanney Khan (2018)
The journey of a struggling singer 'Fanney Khan' who aspires to make his daughter a big name in the music world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Manto?
The closest matches to Manto are The Current War (2018), Radium Girls (2020) and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Manto?
Start with The Current War (2018), the closest match to Manto.
What is the highest-rated movie like Manto?
Richard Jewell (2019), rated 7.4/10 by 2,840 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Manto?
Giant (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Hindi movies like Manto?
Yes: Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran (2018), Himalay Putra (1997) and Lights! Camera! Murder! (2021).
How are movies similar to Manto chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Manto, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.