Born on July 2, 1968, into a Telugu family in Andhra Pradesh, Gouthami entered the film industry while still in college at GITAM University in Visakhapatnam. Her first screen appearance was a cameo in her cousin Vijaya Chandar’s Telugu film Dayamayudu (1987), a production based on the life of Jesus Christ. That same year, she landed her first lead role in the Telugu film Gandhinagar Rendava Veedhi and made her Kannada debut with Elu Suttina Kote .