Upcoming Tamil horror-thriller '3:33', featuring former Bigg Boss contestant and choreographer Sandy in the lead, is inspired by a spine-chilling real-life incident, its director Nambikkai Chandru has revealed. Talking to IANS, Nambikkai Chandru said, "The incident in question happened in my life in the year 2009. My dad passed away in 2008. A year later, I had a dream in which my dad appeared to be seated right next to my head, warning me of strange powers inside my house. He asked me to move my mom and sister to safety. The dream was scary and I woke up only to find that I couldn't move any part of my body. The only part that I could move was my eyeballs and I noticed the time was 3:33 a.m." Chathur Mukham Movie Review: Logical Flaws Aside, Manju Warrier’s Horror-Thriller Keeps You Hooked Throughout (LatestLY Exclusive).

"I chose to ignore the dream and did not tell it to my mother or sister as we were living in a rented house then and I had too many issues to take care of besides this," says the director. However, the next night too, Chandru says he had a dream, but this time, it wasn't his dad who appeared, but two beautiful women who said they wanted to play hide and seek with him. Boomika Trailer: Aishwarya Rajesh, Karthik Subbaraj’s Tamil Horror Film Unfold Scary Incidents at a School; to Premiere on Netflix From August 23 (Watch Video).

"I play hide and seek with them and eventually go searching for them to the terrace, only to see them jump off and commit suicide. I come to see their bodies and realise they are the bodies of my close relatives," says a rattled Chandru, who can still remember the dreams like they happened yesterday. Like the earlier dream, this dream too awakened him at exactly 3:33 a.m. and as in the earlier case, the director says he wasn't able to move any part of his body after the dream.

"Every night, I wouldn't be able to move any part of my body. I would be screaming at the top of my voice but no sound would come out. The time would be exactly 3:33 a.m. every morning," says Chandru, who says he began to have fights with everybody around him after these strange developments began happening.

"I started fighting with my mom, my sister and my girlfriend. My relationships with my colleagues and my friends also started to deteriorate. At one point, my mom told me that I had the look of death on my face and that is when I realised that I was beginning to actually dread 3.33 a.m.," says Chandru, who goes on to say the problem began to intensify with time.

"Initially, I started getting this dream only at 3:33 in the morning. With each passing day, the problems began to multiply and I began getting these dreams at 3:33 in the afternoon as well," says Chandru, who says that at one point, he got a dream that he couldn't afford to ignore.

"I haven't shown this dream in the film but it scared me out of my wits. It was the final straw. This particular dream had just me in it with only the voice of a woman coming from the kitchen. In this dream, I am famished and am asking her for food. A plaintain leaf on which several non-vegetarian side dishes have been served is kept before me. The woman, whose face I cannot see, comes and serves me food and pours blood on it. What's more, she says, 'Nobody can separate us Chandru. Look, it's 3:33 now.' I woke up and the time on the digital clock was exactly 3:33 a.m."

The director says that night, he ran all the way to the temple and did not enter his house until his mom and sister, who had gone to Coimbatore, returned. "We vacated the house soon after that and from then, I haven't faced this problem," says Chandru, pointing out that the film's plot has been slightly altered from the actual incident. Chandru says they are looking to release his film, which also features director Gautham Vasudev Menon as a paranormal investigator, in December this year. Shruthi Selvam plays the female lead in the film, which has music by Harshvardhan Rameshwar.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 11, 2021 04:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).