Aptech put a generative-AI charter across Arena Animation and MAAC in the year its individual-student revenue fell 8 per cent

At 31 March 2026 Aptech Limited ran 169 Arena Animation centres across 24 states and union territories and 136 Maya Academy of Advanced Creativity centres across 23 states, inside a domestic network of 570 centres spanning six brands ^[2].

The FY2026 investor update announces an "Enterprise-wide AI Charter introduced to integrate Generative AI across training programs" ^[4]. The same deck states that AI is integrated across the MAAC and Arena Animation programmes in animation, VFX, gaming, filmmaking and digital content creation, and lists "AI Film Making and Story Telling" on its roadmap ^[4].

Abir Aich, Aptech's executive vice president for technical M&E, told AnimationXpress on 4 November that "Across Maac and Arena Animation, we are working to keep programmes connected to evolving industry workflows" and that "In our AI filmmaking programme, for example, learners work through the complete creative process" ^[7].

What the same filing says about the business selling those courses

Retail segment revenue fell 8 per cent in FY2026, to Rs 389.23 crore from Rs 424.92 crore the year before ^[3]. The retail segment result fell further over the same year, down 18 per cent to Rs 57.93 crore from Rs 70.96 crore ^[3].

Retail is the segment that sells courses to individual students, and institutional is assessment and testing services sold to institutions and corporations ^[3]. Institutional revenue rose 225 per cent in FY2026, to Rs 114.19 crore from Rs 35.18 crore ^[3]. Total revenue from operations rose 9 per cent, to Rs 503.43 crore ^[3].

On those figures the institutional segment added Rs 79.01 crore of revenue while retail gave up Rs 35.69 crore, which is the Desk's arithmetic on the segment table rather than a figure the filing states ^[3].

The number that would settle the pipeline question is not disclosed

The deck gives centre, state and city counts for MAAC and for Arena Animation, and gives no revenue, enrolment or student figures for either brand ^[4]. Slide 11 lists six domestic brands inside that 570-centre network: Arena Animation, Lakme Academy Powered by Aptech, Maya Academy of Advanced Creativity, Aptech Learning, Aptech International Pre-school and Aptech Aviation ^[9]. Nothing in the filing breaks retail revenue down by brand ^[4].

Against a sector growing at about 2 per cent

EY's release on the FICCI-EY media and entertainment report puts growth in India's animation and VFX segment at 2 per cent in 2025, and attributes the slowdown to the Hollywood writers' strike hitting global supply chains and to international studios concentrating on fewer films and series ^[5].

AnimationXpress, reporting from the same FICCI-EY 2026 report, put that growth at 1.6 per cent in 2025, which is a different number for the same segment of the same report than the 2 per cent in EY's own release ^[6].

Enrolment at either chain is not in the filing ^[4].