Crime thrillers are director Ram Gopal Varma's forte and his next release 'Contract' is on the same subject. But he clarifies that it is not a trilogy of his films on underworld 'Satya' and 'Company'.

Varma claims that the film that is releasing July 18 deals with separate underworld issues.

''Satya' dealt with the inside view of the underworld, 'Company' talked about the organisational structure of it and 'Contract' is about the link between underworld and terrorism. It has nothing to do with 'Satya' or 'Company', ' Varma told.

'It is set in the backdrop of underworld, therefore, one may think of its link with two of my earlier films, but in reality it is a different film. It is not a dark movie like 'Company'. It is more of a 'masala' movie packaged in a realistic way, ' added Varma.

Varma's 'Satya' was one of the biggest hits of 1998 and 'Company' repeated the success story when released in 2002.

While Varma's last release 'Sarkar Raj' had the biggest stars of Bollywood - Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai, 'Contract' has no known faces.

'The film is a character drama, therefore, characters are important. There is no space for a star. Every character has a role to play, which is well defined, ' said Varma.

Is he planning to launch Adhvik Mahajan as another angry young man with 'Contract'?

'The film has not been designed to launch any actor neither is there any hero or heroine in the film. Though it has a character played by Adhvik around whom the story revolves, all other characters are also important.'

Varma says he doesn't think of stars while planning his film.

'It is the demand of the script that makes me decide about the cast. The character of 'Sarkar' needed a star whose image is larger than life, but in this film we don't need a star because all characters are from our day to day life.'

'Contract' also has Sakshi Gulati, Amruta Khanvilkar, Prasad Purandare, Zakir Hussain, among others. Praveen Nischol, Ajay and Sanjeev Bijli are producing the film.