And Mumbai’s Amborish Roychoudhury, whose book In A Cult of Their Own comes out this year, finds himself seamlessly enchanted by regional films, fringe cinema, high-brow classics and corny blockbusters. The site also lists over 900 examples of Hindi films ‘inspired’ by foreign ones. Delhi-based author Madhulika Liddle’s blog Dusted Offoffers analyses and quirky lists based on pre-’70s cinema, while Delhi’s Bobby Sing – named after the Rishi Kapoor-Dimple Kapadia blockbuster, which came out the year he was born – revels in the details on his blog Bobby Talks Cinema. Shishir Krishna Sharma, a Mumbai bank employee focuses on mid-’40s to mid-’60s films on his blog Beete Hue Din. Such is his passion that when the lyricist-filmmaker was unable to recall a particular detail during an interview, he responded, “Ek minute, main Pavan se pooch leta hoon”. Jaipur IT professional Pavan Jha specialises in everything Gulzar. But where American fans obsess over the Star Wars’ extended universe, Tarantino gunfights, and superhero cosplay, Indians can go many steps further. They’ll watch and rewatch movies, memorise key dialogues and obsessively track an actor’s or director’s oeuvre. In many ways, Bollywood buffs are the same as film enthusiasts anywhere. Is it any surprise that Diptakirti Chaudhuri, the boy in question, grew up to write an exhaustive book on Bollywood trivia and one about screenwriters Salim-Javed? He’s one of a legion of film enthusiasts now sharing their treasury of information with the world. Book by book he checks until he finally finds it – When Eight Bells Toll. It’s enough to take him to a library and look up their row of MacLeans.

It’s still too grainy! But he can make out the cover – a helicopter and a man in a diving suit. Over the next few weeks, the boy heads to the video parlour, rents the tape and painstakingly tries to hit pause at just the right moment for a glimpse of the title. For one young boy in Kolkata, however, one question remains: What is that book Sharmila Tagore is reading on the Darjeeling-bound toy train as Rajesh Khanna sings Mere sapno ki rani from the open jeep alongside? His mother has told him it’s a novel by Alistair MacLean, but she’s not sure which.

All threads of the story tie into a neat little bow at the end. A whole nation is tuning in to Doordarshan to catch the Sunday evening Hindi film, Aradhana, a tale of a secret romance, a woman’s sacrifice and a son’s reunion with his mother.

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