After four critically acclaimed films centred on Mumbai's infamous ganglords, Ram Gopal Varma says he will now concentrate on women in the mafia and on small-time sharpshooters who kill for a few thousand bucks.

"I will keep making films on the underworld. It is a world that fascinates me. Now the two ideas that I am looking at are women and small-time hit men," Varma told in an interview here.

"There are ideas galore," said the maker of "Satya", "Company", "Ab Tak Chappan" and the to-be-released "D", all films set around the mob theme.

"I am very keen to understand what role women play in the underworld, how they relate to the dons, what power they wield, what decisions they take - all this is very interesting," Varma said, sitting at his suburban Mumbai office called The Factory with its brass and steel plated floors and walls strewn with the paintings of Roman and Greek heroes and angels.

"I have always felt that women play this subtle but very crucial role in the underworld and I want to explore that in a film."

Hit men also fascinate him. "We keep talking about the big dons - people who have lots of money and muscle power, people who rule. But what about the men who are that muscle power, who actually carry out the tasks of the dons?

"These are people who come from various backgrounds, they are usually poor and desperate - or are they? I want to understand how they kill a man for a few thousand, sometimes a few hundred rupees? This psyche of the hit man is very interesting."

In his past films, Varma has depicted the Mumbai underworld from its very city-centric roots to the mafia as a global corporation spanning countries and nationalities.

He has also explored Indian filmdom's association with the mafia and the role cops play in eliminating and keeping alive the Mumbai underworld.

"I am far from over with gangster films," said Varma.