Film

Razia Sultan

A sweeping historical drama about Razia Sultan, Delhi's only female ruler in the 13th century, balancing power, duty and forbidden love. Hema Malini commands the screen in this ambitious period epic that treats its subject with genuine grandeur. A showcase for Hindi cinema's visual ambition and emotional scale.

If you liked this

Padmaavat2018

Another lavish historical epic centred on a powerful woman navigating courts, war, and impossible choices. Sanjay Leela Bhansali's direction rivals any studio film for sheer visual spectacle and emotional reach.

But Nearly four hours long, and the historical liberties around its female lead sparked real controversy. It's designed for maximum melodrama, which won't suit everyone.

Padmaavat poster

Devdas2002

Sanjay Leela Bhansali's baroque masterpiece of desire and duty in rigidly hierarchical India. The scale, colour, and emotional intensity match Razia Sultan's ambitions, and both are unmissable films about women constrained by impossible circumstance.

But Deeply pessimistic—no one gets what they want. Some find its beauty exhausting rather than moving. Three hours of gorgeous despair.

Devdas poster

Jodhaa Akbar2008

A historical romance with genuine stakes: a marriage between a Mughal emperor and a Rajput princess that becomes a love story. Ash Yadav's direction and the lead performances capture both intimacy and the weight of empire.

But Heavily romanticises history. If you want accuracy over spectacle, this isn't your film. Also long—over three hours.

Jodhaa Akbar poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Umrao Jaan1981

Both centre women of real authority in historical India making impossible choices between duty and desire. Same era, different castes, same emotional architecture—but Umrao Jaan refuses the consolation of grandeur.

A period film about a woman of agency and intelligence—a courtesan, not a sultan, but navigating power, love, and duty in Mughal India with the same complexity. Muzaffar Ali's direction and Rekha's performance are sublime. The poetry, music, and visual language are extraordinary.

But Utterly tragic—no happy resolution. The film is restrained and melancholic rather than epic or triumphant. If you want your heroine to win, this isn't it.

Umrao Jaan poster
More like this (8)

The Deceivers1988

Nicholas Meyer's intelligent historical thriller set in colonial India, exploring power, duty, and the corrupting machinery of empire. Grittier and morally complex than most period pieces, with a protagonist wrestling with complicity.

But Less visually sumptuous than Razia Sultan. Slower paced, more cerebral. The colonial setting is a very different world from medieval Delhi.

The Deceivers poster

Jhansi Ki Rani1953

An earlier Hindi cinema epic about another powerful woman in Indian history—the Rani of Jhansi fighting the British. It shares Razia Sultan's grandeur and its central concern with female agency and defiance.

But Filmed in 1953; the production values are far more modest. The pacing is slower by modern standards. Harder to access than contemporary epics.

Jhansi Ki Rani poster

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India2001

A historical drama about ordinary people resisting imperial power, with emotional and political depth rarely seen in Indian cinema. The filmmaking is precise and the stakes feel earned rather than imposed by spectacle.

But A village drama, not a palace epic—a completely different register from Razia Sultan. Slower, more grounded, less concerned with costume and grandeur than character.

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India poster

Hey Ram2000

Kamal Haasan's ambitious, unconventional historical meditation on partition and communal violence in India. Visually daring and morally serious in ways that challenge easy heroism—relevant to how we understand Indian history.

But Formally experimental in ways that can feel self-indulgent. Haasan's direction is sometimes obtuse. Requires patience and willingness to sit with ambiguity and pain.

Hey Ram poster

Khuda Gawah1992

An adventurous historical romance with Amitabh Bachchan and Sridevi spanning Afghanistan and India. It has Razia Sultan's sweep and romantic idealism, with strong action and emotional commitment from its leads.

But Uneven in execution and occasionally feels overstuffed. Some sequences drag. The romance can feel overwrought. Not as carefully crafted as the best epics.

Khuda Gawah poster

Natrang2010

A Marathi film about performance, tradition, and personal ambition. It shares Razia Sultan's interest in how individuals navigate rigid social structures, but approaches it through theatre and with a darker, more ironic eye.

But In Marathi, so subtitled. Very different tone—tragicomic rather than grand. Concerned with cultural specificity rather than sweeping history. Harder to find and smaller in scale.

Natrang poster

The Leopard1963

Both are epics that use visual grandeur to explore the loneliness of absolute power. Both understand that being a sultan or a prince is about witnessing your own world become history.

Visconti's masterpiece about power, legacy, and the beautiful death of an order. A Sicilian prince watches his world change around him in scenes of staggering visual beauty. It's about how empires end, watched by those who built them.

But Italian cinema, not Indian. Slow, meditative, more interested in texture than narrative drive. Some find it glacial. Needs patience and a willingness to sit with melancholy.

The Leopard poster

Rang Rasiya2014

Both explore powerful, talented women whose agency is compromised by the world around them. Both understand that beauty and intelligence don't protect you from history's cruelty.

A biographical drama about the 19th-century Marathi painter Raja Ravi Varma and his muse/model, a woman of talent trapped by caste and circumstance. Gorgeous colour, real sexual and creative tension, and a piercing look at how women's ambitions are mediated through men's art.

But Slower and more sensual than Razia Sultan, less about politics than desire and creation. Not a historical epic but an intimate period film. Some find it precious or indulgent.

Rang Rasiya poster

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