Urvashi started acting films during the 1980's. "Munthanai Mudichchu"(Tamil; 1983) directed by K.Bhagyaraj was her first film. "Ethirppukal" (Malayalam; 1984) was one of her earlier films in Malayalam. During the peak of her career, she starred in M. P. Sukumaran Nair's award-winning film 'Kazhakam' in 1995, without taking a single penny as remuneration. She was awarded Best Actress for this role.

She made her debut in Tamil films with Mundhanai Mudichu (1983) with Bhagyaraj. The movie was a big hit and made Urvashi a sought after actress in all the South Indian languages. Urvashi has also acted in many Kannada movies with all top heroes like Dr. Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan, Ravichandran and Ramesh Aravind. Her latest Kannada movie Raama Shaama Bhaama (2005) with Ramesh Arvind and Kamal Hassan was a crowd puller and her performance was well appreciated by critics and audience.

Urvashi was also seen as the host of the game show Thanga Vettai aired on Sun TV. She served as the host for the show for a very short time preceded by Ramya Krishnan and succeeded by Kanika Subramaniam.