Amitabh Bachchan turns down invite from Queen Elizabeth II

It is not too often that the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, sends out invitations to people to join her at the Buckingham Palace for cultural events. When one such invite comes in the mail, it is not usually turned down, unless you are Bollywood megastar, Amitabh Bachchan. It has been reported that the Queen extended a rare invitation to the actor, who is arguably one of India’s biggest cultural icons, to the United Kingdom–India Cultural Year reception at the Palace. However, the invite was politely turned down by the star citing a “pre-scheduled commitments” as the reason behind giving the gala a miss. Although Bachchan was “honoured” to have received the invite, his packed shooting and promotional schedules have forced him to sit this one out. Apart from shooting for Vijay Krishna Acharya’s ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ with Aamir Khan and Gaurang Doshi’s ‘Aankhen 2’, Amitabh will also be launching the trailer of Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Sarkar 3’. He also has a number of film projects in the pipeline including Ayan Mukerji’s superhero film.