Gouthami was born in Andra Pradesh on 2 July 1968. She was introduced to Tamil films through Guru Shishyan, a film that also starred Rajnikanth. She was most active in Tamil cinema from the late 80's to the mid 90's, and was a competitor to the other heroines of the time, Kushboo and Banupriya.Her filmography includes Thevar Magan, as well as Mani Ratnam's "Iruvar",  which co-starred Mohanlal, Prakash Raj, Aishwarya Rai, Tabu, Nasser and Revathi.

She has acted in the Tamil serial "Indira" in the lead role. She made a guest appearance in the song 'Chikku Bukku Railu' with Prabhu Deva. Recently she has also hosted a talk show in Sun TV titled Anbudan which was launched to compete with Koffee with Anu running on Vijay. She is currently acting in the serial bhirami which  in kalingar TV.