Happy Birthday Shekhar Kapur: In his shelved film Time Machine, Aamir Khan meets a struggling Amitabh Bachchan; witnesses Lord Krishna’s conversation with Arjun in Mahabharata era!

By Fenil Seta -

December 6, 2021 - 4:30 PM IST

It’s Shekhar Kapur’s 76th birthday today. The talented filmmaker has made very few films in Bollywood but all of them – Masoom (1983), Mr India (1987), and Bandit Queen (1994) – are all memorable and finest pieces of cinema. He also made a mark in Hollywood. Sadly, the director is infamous as he has abandoned or left several projects mid-way; and in some cases, the films got stalled due to external factors. Some of them saw the light of the day when other directors stepped into his shoes. However, there were a few films, which were never made after the film ran into problems. One such film is Time Machine, which starred Aamir Khan. Not much is known about the film except that it was set in the sci-fi zone. Recently, veteran art director Bijon Das Gupta revealed some interesting details about the film and its premise to an entertainment website.

Happy Birthday Shekhar Kapur: In his shelved film Time Machine, Aamir Khan meets a struggling Amitabh Bachchan; witnesses Lord Krishna’s conversation with Arjun in Mahabharata era!

Bijon Das Gupta created the sets and did the production design of Time Machine. He revealed that as the title of the film suggests, the protagonist, played by Aamir Khan, goes to travel back in time to look for his parents, essayed by Naseeruddin Shah and Rekha. Bijon Das was quoted as saying that “Time Machine was Back To The Future with an Indian touch.”

Interestingly, in one of the scenes of the film, Aamir Khan's character meets Amitabh Bachchan before he had become a superstar. As per Bijon Das Gupta, Aamir bumps into Amitabh at a bus stop. He tells Big B that in future, he will become a huge star. Amitabh is struggling at that point and is surprised by this prediction. Aamir's character later arranges Amitabh's meeting with blockbuster writer Salim-Javed and it helps Big B in bagging Zanjeer (1973), the film that changed the course of his career.

That's not all. Bijon Das Gupta shocked readers as he admitted that in another scene, Aamir Khan travels all the way to the Mahabharata era! He even witnesses Lord Krishna's conversation with Arjun at the start of the epic war at Kurukshetra. Bijon Das said that Time Machine was supposed to be made in 1992, at a time when B R Chopra's television show 'Mahabharat' was still fresh in people's minds. Hence, the makers were confident that this particular track would have helped in attracting moviegoers.

Bijon Das Gupta further added that almost 10 or 10 reels of Time Machine were shot. According to him, the producers of the film ran into problems due to which it got stuck. As per reports, Shekhar Kapur tried to revive the film in 2008 with Ranbir Kapoor. Sadly, the attempt of Shekhar was futile.

An on-the-set video is available and that's the only glimpse that fans can see of this film. In the video, Shekhar Kapur reveals that a scientist creates a time machine through which the protagonist, played by Aamir, travels in time to meet his parents. He also adds that his idea was to make it like a musical with a mix of the music of the 1960s and 1990s.

In the video, it also comes to light that the late Vijay Anand plays the scientist who develops the time machine. Aamir mentions that Raveena Tandon, Paresh Rawal, and Rohini Hattangadi also featured in the cast.

What is interesting to note is that though, Time Machine could never be made, Aamir did use or plans to use some of its elements in his forthcoming films. Bollywood Hungama had revealed that in his much-awaited film, Laal Singh Chaddha, his character meets Shah Rukh Khan when he had not become a star. It seems to be on the lines of Aamir and Amitabh Bachchan’s scene in Time Machine. Similarly, Mahabharata has been a passion project for Aamir Khan and he has even admitted that he wishes to make a grand film on the epic someday.