Mumbai, Mar 22 (IANS): Suparn Verma, who has directed Bollywood's latest horror film "Aaatma", says the genre has found a new lease of life in Hindi cinema thanks to popular actresses like Bipasha Basu.

He believes horror genre was once considered B-grade cinema in Bollywood. That, he said, has changed.

"I think horror has always had a huge audience for a very long time. It's just that we have been making less of horror cinema. Also, it is only in recent years, with Bipasha kind of starting it off, when A-listers have started doing horror cinema.

"Until then, it was treated as B-grade cinema, a sub-genre of cinema. Today it has become respectful. The audience is huge," Suparn said here Thursday at a promotional event held for "Aatma".

Verma's "Aatma", co-starring Bipasha and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, released Friday.

Bipasha has done quite a few horror films like "Raaz" (2002), "Darna Zaroori Hai" (2006) and "Raaz 3" (2012).

Verma also said the availability of new techniques has increased the possibilities that can be explored in the genre.

"Now we have started pushing the envelope. We have new stories and techniques coming out. With horror there is a lot more play, technically, which you can't do with romantic (films). There, you can only show romance, but in horror, there is morality, fear... you can show a lot actually," he said.