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Tag: Maya Entertainment

  • Maya Entertainment gets Intel to invest again, bags $5 million outsourcing contract

    Maya Entertainment gets Intel to invest again, bags $5 million outsourcing contract

    MUMBAI: Ketan Mehta promoted Maya Entertainment Ltd, a leading computer animation and visual effects studio for film and television in India, has received a third round of funding to meet its expansion plans from Intel Capital.

    Intel Capital’s latest investment in Maya is via a new fund it has floated – Intel Capital India Technology Fund.

    Maya has got outsourcing contracts worth $5 million to be executed over a period of 18 months. “We are doing it for a UK-based production company,” says Maya Entertainment Ltd CEO Rajesh Turakhia.

    For the 30-episode animation TV series, the contract is worth $3.65 million. “The remaining amount will be towards work for direct-to-home (DTH) DVD which will be completed by October 2006,” says Turakhia. The project for the TV series is expected to be complete by March 2007.

    Maya Entertainment will soon expand its seat capacity to 200, Turakhia says. The target is to have a 300-seat capacity by beginning of 2007. The company is in negotiations for three more animation outsourcing projects.

    Intel Capital had first invested in Maya in 2000. The second round of funding took place in 2003. Intel has done the fresh funding through its Intel Capital India Technology Fund. Out of the Fund’s corpus of $250 million, Intel has completed three investments for an undisclosed amount in Indian companies.

    Bangalore-based Mobiapps, a provider of hybrid terrestrial and satellite technologies for commercial communications, has received a funding of $10 million. The financing round was led by UOB Venture Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of United Overseas Bank Ltd, and other new investors included Intel Capital. Existing investors also participated, including Partners Group. Beacon Advisory acted as financial advisors to the company for this equity funding. The company will use this investment to accelerate its global sales and marketing, new product launches, and next generation product development.

    Intel’s third investment is in Pune-based Persistent Systems Private Ltd, a provider of outsourced software product development services. Mobiapps is new to the Intel Capital portfolio, and Maya Entertainment and Persistent Systems are follow-on investments in companies that have been part of the Intel Capital portfolio since 2000.

  • Ketan Mehta’s Maya Entertainment inks deal with Fortitude

    Ketan Mehta’s Maya Entertainment inks deal with Fortitude

    MUMBAI: Fortitude Entertainment Group, a developer in entertainment content from films to music, has entered a partnership with Ketan Mehta’s animation company Maya Entertainment. The new company will be called Fortitude Maya.

    “This partnership with Maya Entertainment is reflective of a further refinement of our long-term international business objectives. Maya Entertainment brings to the table a great infrastructure with Indian cost-efficiency; while Fortitude will manage the projects utilizing the skills and expertise of the greatest professionals in Hollywood. This will create a unique and successful business model for our animation division,” said Fortitude Entertainment Group co-founder Lisa Marie Butkiewicz.

    The first anticipated title to be released under the new partnership is scheduled for 2006.
     

  • Padmalaya animation director Rajeev Sangari joins Maya Entertainment as COO

    MUMBAI: Padmalaya animation division director Rajeev Sangari has joined Maya Entertainment Limited (MEL) as chief operating officer. Sangari was also serving as the president of Zee Institute of Creative Arts (ZICA).

    The fate of Padmalaya’s animation and other businesses stand uncertain. Recently, Zee Telefilms Limited (ZTL) had made allegations against founder-promoters of Padmalaya companies’ for fraudulent acts. ZTL had also sought market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (SEBI) intervention.

    Confirming Sangari’s appointment, Maya Entertainment chief executive officer Rajesh Turakhia told indiantelevision.com that Sangari was taken in at a time when the company was in expansion mode.

    “We are planning expansion in the education field where we already have 40 animation academic centres. Our 3D outsourcing contracts are also increasing. Sangari is expected to speed up these processes,” said Turakhia.

    Padmalaya announced a $19 million animation deal with Mondo TV group in March 2004, which never took of. According to an industry source, several animators working in Padmalaya are now looking for jobs.

  • Maya to make animated feature for BBC

    Maya to make animated feature for BBC

    MUMBAI: Indian animation company Maya Entertainment Ltd (MEL) has bagged the contract to make a BBC show titled Jack Frost, a 30 minute animated feature based on a UK bestseller childrens book. The $7, 50,000 project is a 3D animation programme is scheduled for a Christmas launch on BBC Worldwide this year.

     
    According to MEL CEO Rajesh Turakhia, “The assignment came to MEL through UKs Jack Frost Productions who are associated with BBC Worldwide. While pre-production functions like the storyboard and modeling have been done in UK, we are involved in production activities related to animating the entire show, the background elements and compositing.

     

    MEL is also creating 10 to 12 animated fillers for popular kids channels such as Nickelodeon to be shown between programmes, each budgeted at $25,000, says Turakhia. The company is also negotiating a 26-episode television series with a European outfit. “Budgeted at $ two million, work on this project is expected to take off around October-November this year. Deliveries would start getting rolled out from 2005, says Turakhia.

    MEL is currently changing its infrastructure to accommodate an additional 150 animators from its current 65 while a division of its stake holder Intel will aid in the design, restructuring and update of the hardware and software to meet the expanding client base, he says.

    Maya Entertainment has also secured orders from a US firm to create a special programme based on products of a leading toy manufacturer. This show sports a budget of $250,000. MEL has also clinched a $150,000 gaming animation project from the same studio.

  • Maya Entertainment bags 2 awards at Broadcast India 2003

    Maya Entertainment bags 2 awards at Broadcast India 2003

    MUMABI: At the Seagate Technical Awards, Maya Entertainment Ltd won the excellence in Digital Technology for films and TV for Jajantaram Mamantaram (J2M2) and 6X4 – The Space.
     

    While J2M2 won the Best Digital Visual Effects for a Feature Film, 6 X 4 – The Space won the Best Digitally Shot Short Film / Documentary, says a company release.

    Maya Entertainment Ltd’s Biju D and Prasad Sutar with their trophy
    J2M2, a children’s movie based on the Gulliver’s travel theme, was released early this year. Over 20 animators, six Flame Operators, three storyboard artists and a number of technical support, production and coordination personnel from Maya Entertainment. Lead by Biju D and Prasad Sutar, who had previously won the Zee Cine Award for Digital Special Effects for the film Hindustan Ki Kasam, the Maya Entertainment was competing against Rakesh Roshan’s Koi Mil Gaya for this award.

    My precious: Wilson Louis with the trophy
    According to the release, the animation and effects of J2M2 totaled above 63 minutes, and took over a year to make. As for 6×4- The Space, Wilson Louis’ debut directorial, co produced by Maya Entertainment Ltd, was shot completely on DV camera as an experiment and then transferred on to 35MM negative.

    The whole film was ready for censor in less than 2 months. The 15-minute film manages to evoke a variety of emotions without the use of dialogues and has a dark setting, depicting a person life, which is reduced to a tiny space of 6X4 feet his full time work place. The film is produced by Wilson’s Rugged Edge Films, co-produced by Maya Entertainment has been recently screened at Mocha Film Club.

  • India has some way to go on animation, special effects front – ICT 2002

    India has some way to go on animation, special effects front – ICT 2002

    One of themes at ICT 2002 was India as the new international hub for animation. 

    Pointing to the scale of the business, CEO UTV Net Solutions Biren Ghose said the worldwide animation industry is worth $ 2 billion, excluding merchandising. Of this the Asian market is worth $ 300 million with India making up only $ 3-7 million, he said. He said that China has original content and has got into mass animation production.

    Ghose spoke of four growth codes:
    1. Skill sets must grow in a creative manner – Pre production involves formatting and conceptualization by international clients. Then there is actual production and this is followed by post production which is done elsewhere. 

    2. Have world class processors – A liberal economy means that cost and output must be effective. It is no use utlising the best software if the process involved is not cost effective. 

    3. Branding and positioning – He gave the example of what Nasscom is doing for the IT industry. If Indian animation is to reach $ 50-100 million levels then marketing efforts have to be upscaled.

    4. Hybrid content creation capability – Animation in India at the moment is vertically focussed. It needs to be able to broadbase. 

    According to AK Madhavan, senior V-P international business, Crest Communication, for a while now Asia has basically been providing services, which he termed as sweat. Now there is a shift happening and so intellectual capabilities can be tapped. 

    During the session on special effects Maya Entertainment’s Ketan Mehta noted that over the past four to five years, films and tele serials have increasingly been using special effects. According to Mehta, big budget films spend Rs 20-30 million on special effects which constitute about 20 per cent of the content. Smaller budget films spend the same amount but animation constitutes about half the content. Then there are films which use special effects only for the credit sequences.

    Mehta expects digital cinema to happen in India and China sooner than in any other part of the globe. With computer animation and digital applications increasingly becoming a part of the special effects department goals need to be identified, he said. 

    As far as work in this area is concerned the U.S. accounts for 48 per cent and Europe 21 per cent of the business. As far as sectors are concerned film, television and broadcast account for 42 per cent of jobs done, the gaming industry takes up 31 per cent and the Internet swallows a mere 15 per cent. 

    Mehta identified the lack of bandwidth as a major hindrance to the development of the industry. High bandwidth will allow foreign clients in America or Europe to monitor the work being done in India, he said. India has the cost advantage at the moment but this will not last long as the costs are rising. So quality has become paramount in importance, he said.