Maya Entertainment launches cinematics academy

Maya Entertainment Ltd, a brainchild of film director Ketan Mehta and actress Deepa Sahi, has launched their Academy of Advanced Cinematics in the capital. The company, which is already doing a lot of work in animation and special effects, will train professionals and freshers about the techniques of multi-media animation in high-end applications.

The company already has four centers in Punjab and one in Mumbai. It has been a deliberate strategy to restrict its presence in the North in order to tap the talent in the region. The South and the Eastern regions of the country are already deemed to be tech-savvy particularly in cinematics. However the company plans to extend its presence to 15 centers across the country during this financial year. The training period would range from four to eight months and the fee structure would start from Rs 40,000-45,000.

The genesis of the Academy was the need felt by Mehta for high technology solutions while shooting the last scene in Maya Memsaheb, which required Maya to drink the magic portion and disappear. The shot was taken several times without getting the desired effect. Eventually the team went to studios in Singapore and Hong Kong to get the effect generated. That experience made him realize the prohibitive costs to do special effects outside the country and the absence of qualified manpower in the country to do the job here.

There is huge scope for deploying animation and special effects in any industry. It is not restricted to just the entertainment industry or advertising world. It could be applied in architecture, town planning, and music videos and in mundane tasks as jewelry and fashion designing. Therefore the employment opportunities for people who pass out of the Academy are plenty. Besides there is also huge scope in getting outsourced business.

Today increasingly Hollywood is looking at countries in Asia to outsource a bulk of their post-production work as it results in tremendous cost-savings. The cost advantages could be in the range of 50 percent in India as against 40 percent in Taiwan and Singapore. Besides, India also scores on the language front. Mehta estimates the size of the outsourced market could be in the tune of $ 400 million. Impressed by the quality of work at Maya Entertainment, Intel Corp, Enam Securities and Concept Communication pumped in investment to the tune of Rs 20 crore last year.