Zakir Hussain, who played villain in "Sarkar", says his career didn't get a push till he started playing the bad man. But he says, "I am a sensitive villain. So nobody wants to hurt me."

But when he tried his hand at comedy in Ram Gopal Varma's "Darling", the poor man got slapped for his efforts. He was doing a hospital scene with Fardeen Khan and discussing his broken leg, cast and all.

"Esha Deol was flitting in and out of the scene because she is playing a ghost in the film. Suddenly, Ramu shouted 'slap him' and Esha gave me a tight slap across my face. This was not exactly part of the script, so nobody was prepared.

"Her slap was spontaneous and real. Afterwards, Esha kept apologising and asked me to slap her back because this was a genuine slap. But I told her not to worry," said Zakir.

May be Esha is worried that Zakir will report her slap to brother Sunny Deol with whom he is working in "Fool N Final" or tell her father Dharmendra who is with Zakir in "Johnny Gaddaar". But mention the word 'slap' and Zakir's hand immediately goes to his face.