Karan Johar Offered Rs 25 Lakhs for Aamir Khan's Shelved Film, Time Machine

Shekhar Kapur once tried to make a desi Back to the Future called Time Machine, with Aamir Khan in the lead role. But it was canned midway. Karan Razdan wrote the film which never saw the light of day. In an old interview with Bollywood Hungama, Razdan said several producers explored reviving Time Machine over the years, including Manmohan Shetty, Ramesh Taurani, Karan Johar and Firoz Nadiadwala.

According to Razdan, discussions with Dharma Productions kicked off after Shekhar Kapur asked him to meet Jugal Hansraj, who was then overseeing the company's story department. Razdan said he wanted to narrate the script himself but was told Johar preferred reading it. He claimed he was later informed that Dharma would offer Rs 25 lakh for the screenplay. Razdan was shocked, protesting, "Are you buying gold or brass? Understand what I am offering you".

Razdan revealed that Time Machine followed Aamir Khan's character, who accidentally travels back to the era of the Mahabharata after failing to operate a time machine. The character finds himself witnessing the great war and encounters Lord Krishna, who tells him the Mahabharata is underway. Beyond its fantasy premise, Razdan said the film dwelled on a young man's longing to meet his late parents. The protagonist, raised by relatives played by Paresh Rawal and Rohini Hattangadi, is treated as a servant by their sons, portrayed by N D Balraj and Gulshan Grover.

In a 2021 interview, the film’s art director Bijon Das Gupta told Cinestaan that the film was “Back To The Future with an Indian touch.” He added that the film got shelved because of financial concerns. “Unfortunately, the producers ran into problems. So they could not go any further. I told Shekhar, ‘You take over the project, let’s give it to somebody else for production.’ But by the time it got there, there was a backlog of money the producers owed for various things. The film became the casualty.”

Karan Razdan had also said that it was his script for Time Machine that became the groundwork for Harman Baweja’s much-discussed film debut Love Story 2050, which starred Priyanka Chopra. “I had written Time Machine for Shekhar Kapur, which starred Aamir Khan. That was the base for Love Story 2050. It was 60 percent shot and then got shelved. Many years later, Harry told me he wanted to launch his son, Harman, and expressed the desire to make a film similar to Time Machine. But instead of the past, the character would travel in the future,” he said.