New Delhi: The controversy regarding popular Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan being invited for International Film Festival of India (IFFI) is not ready wave away for the consecutive third year.

And with another popular actor Shah Rukh Khan inaugurating the festival, this issue is getting stormier.

It is official now that Shah Rukh will be the chief guest at the inaugural function of the IFFI, 2007 that starts from November 23.

As per the Directorate of Film Festival it is Shah Rukh's contribution to Indian Cinema that has earned him this honour and the star was kind enough to accept the invitation.

“We have invited Shah Rukh for the kind of cinema he started in Bollywood and his contribution towards Indian cinema. He has accepted the invitation %26 will be inaugurating the festival,” says Director, Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), Neelam Kapoor.

But the same directorate is showing double standards as far as the Big B is concerned. The DFF that honours Shah Rukh for his contribution has not even extended a formal invitation to a legend that still rules the Box Office.

And DFF has no justification for this act of theirs.

“Only one person can be the chief guest and till now we have extended any formal invitation to Mr Amitabh Bachchan,” says Kapoor.

As IFFI is just few days away, this issue is bound to surface yet again. And although there are lot many talks about political reasons behind ignoring Bachchan, the controversy is far from getting settled.