Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics (MAAC) is the academic and training wing of Maya Entertainment Limited (MEL), a leading computer animation and visual  effects studio for film and television in India . MEL was started in the year 1996 by Ketan Mehta, the internationally acclaimed producer-director (credited  with the making of Bhavani Bhavai, Holi, Mirch Masala, Maya Memsaab, Sardar and The Rising).

A latent demand in the Indian production houses for quality animators and visual effects professionals, spurred the need to establish an academic platform to  impart and train young creative talents. This effected in the establishment of MAAC as a premier 3D Animation and Visual Effects institute in the year 2001, with its first centre in Mumbai. Today, the institute has spread across the entire length and breadth of the country with more than 60 centres and is the  only animation training brand from India to have a successful presence in the Middle East , Nepal and Sri Lanka .

Today, ‘animation’ is no more restricted to Cartoon Characters only. Remember that mind-blowing scene from Godzilla, where the beast's tail swings, savagely  reducing New York skyscrapers to little mounds of rubble? Or the one from The Mask where Jim Carrey's eyeballs pop out and his tongue comes lashing out of  his mouth as he watches Cameron Diaz crooning in a nightclub? Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic Park , Independence Day, Tomb Raider or Harry Potter could  not have been successful without the involvement of quality computer graphics.  

According to an industry forecast by Anderson Consulting, the animation industry in India is poised to touch a whopping USD 1.5 billion (or even more) by  2009. Notably, it was only USD 550 million at present. The growth is largely credited to the fact that a bulk of the international animation assignments are  being outsourced from South Asia.