The 49th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2001. Awards were announced by the committee headed by K. S. Sethumadhavan, K. K. Kapil and Bharat Gopy for the feature films, non-feature films and books written on Indian cinema, respectively, on 26 July 2002; whereas award ceremony took place on 13 February 2003 and awards were given away by then President of India, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

Dweepa is a 2002 Indian Kannada-language film by Girish Kasaravalli, based on the novel of the same name by Na D'Souza. It stars Soundarya, Avinash and M. V. Vasudeva Rao in the lead roles. The film deals with the raging issue of building dams and the displacement of natives. It won two National Film Awards, four Karnataka State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards South.