He is the son of screenwriter KV Vijayendra Prasad and Raja Nandini. He did his primary education in Kovvur and higher studies at Eluru.

Rajamouli began his career as a director for Telugu television shows on Eenadu Television. His directorial debut was the Telugu film Student No 1 (2001) with Jr NTR and Gajala. His next movie was Simhadri (2003) with Jr NTR and Bhumika Chawla. The movie was remade in Kannada and Tamil.

Rajamouli went on to make Sye (2004), Chatrapathi (2005), Vikramarkudu (2006), Yamadonga (2007), Magadheera (2009), Maryada Ramanna (2010) and Eega / Naan Ee (2012), among others.

Rajamouli then focused on a mega project, the Baahubali franchise. The epic action film Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) was shot in Telugu and Tamil and dubbed in Hindi and Malayalam. It was written by Rajamouli’s father KV Vijayendra Prasad.

The film, starring Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah Bhatia, Rana Daggubati, Ramya Krishnan and Sathyaraj, received global recognition and was nominated in four categories at the 42nd Saturn awards of the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in Los Angeles, USA. It won several awards across India.

Baahubali: The Conclusion was released in 2017 and became the highest grossing Indian film of all time. The film won three National awards, the Saturn award for Best International Film at the 44th Saturn awards, and six awards at the 65th Filmfare awards South while Rajamouli won the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year award (2017) for Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment.