India's Supreme Court has told a Bollywood actor to apologise to a fan whom he slapped while he was shooting a film seven years ago.

Govinda said on Tuesday that he "respected" the top court and was waiting for its order.

Santosh Ray said Govinda had slapped him "without any provocation" while he was watching a film shoot in 2008.

Govinda, a former MP, was one of Bollywood's top comedy stars in the 1980s and 1990s.

Ray had sought criminal proceedings against the actor, but his lawyer later told the court that his client would be satisfied with an apology, reports say.

"I was just watching the shooting of a movie as I was his fan. But the incident left me shocked and I lost all respect for him," he told The Hindustan Times newspaper.

On Monday, the court watched video recordings of the incident and asked Govinda to apologise to Ray.

"We all enjoy your movies and you are a great actor but we cannot tolerate your action of slapping. You don't need to do in actual life what you do on screen," the court was quoted as saying by The Times of India newspaper.

"You don't need to pay money for it. Even expressing regret is more than enough. Your prestige would not go down by expressing regret. Have a large heart and apologise," the judges said.

Govinda told reporters on Tuesday that he did "not want to hurt anybody" and was waiting for the complete court order before deciding what to do.