Exclusive | Ketan Mehta's Maya bets big on In-Studio Training Prog.

Celebrated Director, Ketan Mehta is betting big on his latest venture, Maya Digital Studios. Considered one of the pioneering initiatives the ‘Maya In-Studio Training (MIST) Programme

Aims to bridge the gap between academic training and actual studio production process. Speaking to Adgully, Ketan Mehta, Chairman & Managing Director stated, “Maya has constantly offered something new and helped invaluably in the growth of this industry. Under our new initiative, MIST, we will provide an advanced training based on Studio Ready Training Modules with employment at Maya’s studio facilities in Mumbai & Goa for budding professionals into this vibrant industry.” He was speaking during the launch of Maya’s new state-of-the-art 3D animation children’s comedy titled “ Motu Patlu” for Viacom 18’s Nickelodeon.

Elaborating further on the concept of “Motu Patlu”, Mehta said, “it is a hugely popular character in Indian literature that has been around for over 40 years and has enthralled four generations of children, including me. We have worked hard, a team of over 400 people in creating this initial 52 part series. I am sure this will cut across all the age barriers and go on and on.”

Maya Digital Studios has been around for over 15 years now and is known to have pioneered the art and technology of animation and visual effects in India, have been consistently offering international quality 3D animation for some of the best international studios. The company has been associated with several pioneering initiatives for the Indian animation, visual effects & 3D stereoscopy industry. From creating the cultural and infrastructural base for the industry way back in the 1990s to working on the 3D conversion of Indian cinema’s legendary Sholay today,

Says Mehta on plans for the MIST programme, “we wanted to start our own training programmes in films rather than doing just service work for foreigner and providing cheap Indian labour.”

In its earlier avatar, Maya has launched the Maya  Academy of  Advanced Cinematics (MAAC), which had two main business – training and animation production that also did work for international studios. While the training business got sold off to Aptech, the production business has continued. Says Mehta, “our expansion strategy is to take MIST to smaller towns and markets so that up-country talent can be trained and tapped. Right now we have two facilities and we aim to grow 200 per cent in 2012-13.” It’s high time we do some quality work than just providing cheap labour to foreign studios he adds.

The MIST programme has received overwhelming countrywide response from the artists since its launch in August 2012. It is proving to be the best possible platform for the budding professionals into this industry. MIST will be a landmark step in the history of this industry and is all set to create never seen before standards for the industry

With MIST, Mehta is sure that the benchmark for the studio skills of new joinees in this industry will be set, which will effectively contribute to the production efficiency and thereby to the industry. “Our MIST mentors will focus on retaining almost all of the rich studio ready talent with Maya, even after their paid internship during the In-Studio training,” he says. 

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