For ’90s kid Aseem Chandaver, a love for B movies started with Sajid Khan’s Kehne Mein Kya Harj Hai, which brought out the funny details in films and Channel V’s Colossal Chaos Countdown, the ideal Sunday morning show for any B movie buff, that aired in 2002. “Even as a 15-year-old, I could tell that these were very high concept films that couldn’t be executed properly because they didn’t have access to good technicians,” says Chandaver, who has been collecting them over the years, owning over 500 such films that he has plans of further digitising for safekeeping. His @babajogeshwari account on Instagram, which originally started as a YouTube channel around 2006, collects B movie memorabilia, curating moments that stood out.

The period when B movies flourished was between 1992 and 2010, says Chandaver, its golden period spanning the years 1998 to 2003. Films like Khooni Dracula, which he calls “the holy grail” given its unadulterated entertainment value, Hatyarin with its “Hollywood-level effects”, and its director Vinod Talwar working at his peak, Bhoot Ke Peeche Bhoot by Kanti Shah’s brother Kishan Shah, and Sar Kati Laash by Teerat Singh are among his favourites. “The best part about these B movies was that the villain was the real hero, while the hero himself was expendable. The villains had more control, more liberty in the way their characters behaved,” he says, while observing that more than sleaze, it was horror that was the real draw as it had erotica, action and effects.