Why another gangster film, was the question which many people asked me when I wanted to make CONTRACT.

 

First of all I don’t really understand what a gangster film means. Films are primarily made on character conflicts and the issues it deals with. The background just gives it a dimension. For example the story of COMPANY could have been set in a Corporate set-up with the outcome of conflicts just coming to individual beings fired from their jobs instead of being literally fired upon.

 

The underworld background just gives it a sharp edge to make it more hard-hitting. Having said that I must also confess that normal, civilized, nice family people bore me to death.

 

Now coming back to my reason for making another so-called underworld film is this that in 1997 (the year 'Satya' released) according to police statistics there were 108 shootouts related to the underworld and in 2006 there were just 5! It does not mean the underworld as we knew is almost finished. It has just meta-morphed into something much more dangerous, and in some instances it has become a conduit for terrorist networks.

 

The reason why the terrorists would require this kind of support is because mostly the terrorists would be from outside and primarily motivated by ideology. They would require ground support, safe houses, local intelligence, sea routes and land routes to get in arms and explosives and informants in the Police department. Since the underworld is a criminal business organization it can easily collude with the corrupt forces in the Police Department to which a terrorist cell might not have an access to. And these the underworld would provide, for either financial gain or in some cases sympathizing with the cause. The menace of this nexus has caused a complex problem for the various policing agencies of the country like the R.A.W, I.B, C.B, C.I.D, Crime Branch, Anti Terrorist Squad etc. for they can no longer afford to be secretive and are forced to share their information with each other which results in leakages for the simple reason that the more people know, the more are the chances of it being leaked out.

 

CONTRACT is a film against this backdrop.