Golden Kite Club

Golden Kite Club, Mumbai, India was founded in 1973 by Mr. Dilip R. Kapadia with the aim of participating in Local, State and All India Kite Cutting Competitions. In 1977, Golden Kite Club bagged the 1st Prize at the All India Kite Cutting Competition conducted by the Federation of All India Kite Flying Clubs at Moradabad, U.P. Since then, the Club has participated in various Kite Competitions at Local Level, State Level, All India Level and International Level, either as participants or as judges, judging the events.

Dilip R. Kapadia was a consultant to the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat for kick starting the 1st Ahmedabad International Kite Festival which was held in January 1989 and saw just 5 foreign participants. So far there have been 27 International Kite Festivals at Ahmedabad and the number of foreign participants has gradually swelled to more then 100.

During these Festivals, the talent of our club members impressed the Foreign participants - many of the foreign participants recommended the Club members for inviting and sponsoring us at their International Kite Festivals. This led to our participation in International Kite Festivals at Canada, France, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. Golden Kite Club has won prizes at Kite Cutting Competitions at the 1st World Cup of Fighter Kites at Dieppe (France, 1996), Korea Kite Cutting Competition (Korea, 1997), Saclay International Kite Festival (France, 1998), German Masters Kite Festival (Germany, 2000), Vung Tao Kite Festival (Vietnam 2010),etc.

All this exposure has resulted in a wide variety of collection of different types of Indian Kites, various types of Fighter Kites from different parts of the world, a variety of spools ('Firkis') and to add to all this Large Foreign type of kites made from fabric called rib stop nylon (parachute / umbrella material) in different shapes and dimensions like a Cobra Kite with head of 5 feet and 100 feet tail, Black Crow Kite 9 feet wide, Kite Train with more than 150 kites on 1 line, 3D Box Kites, Inflatable kites without any sticks and no wind kites which can be flown indoors.

Most of these kites are made by our club members and the others have been exchanged or gifted to us. We conduct and organize 'Kite Making Workshops', 'Kite Flying Festivals' and 'Indoor Kite Exhibitions'.

Golden Kite Club had the honour of being 'Kite Consultants' at a Pepsi commercial featuring Bollywood Superstar, Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and Cricket Maestro, Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. Also, the kite flying shots at the 'Neelanjanli' television serial of '9X' Channel were conducted by Golden Kite Club. The kite related shots in the commercial film 'Yeh Khula Aasmaan' were done by Golden Kite Club and this film won an Award at the All Sports Los Angeles Film Festival in 2010. Our President, Dilip R. Kapadia has been felicitated by the erstwhile Chief Minister of Gujarat and current Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi on several occasions and we have the honour of our kites being flown by him.