Verma stated, “Gulshan Grover actually gave me a hard slap in First Copy. Internally, I felt like slitting this man’s throat, but I didn’t say anything. I haven’t mentioned this to anyone until today.” He emphasized that, unlike staged slaps in his ongoing comedy series, this incident was unprovoked and caught him off guard.
Verma, who is known in the industry for performing numerous slap sequences on-screen, explained, “I have been slapped thousands of times on Bhabiji Ghar Par Hain, but that is acting. This wasn’t. They didn’t even inform me beforehand. I was in character, but they actually slapped me.” He added that he was furious and momentarily contemplated retaliating physically but restrained himself, instead maintaining composure on set.
The actor also compared the incident with a previous professional fight scene in the film Mardaani, where fellow actor Digvijay had slapped him on the director’s instruction. “Digvijay had warned me and apologized afterward, which is the professional way to handle such scenes. That didn’t happen with Gulshan Grover,” Verma noted.
While Verma chose to laugh off the incident publicly, his revelation sheds light on the pressures and unexpected challenges actors sometimes face on set, especially when professional boundaries are overlooked.
The web series First Copy, featuring Verma alongside Grover, has been in production recently, and this disclosure adds an unexpected behind-the-scenes narrative to the project.
