S. Thaman was born in Andhra Pradesh, India into a Telugu Brahmin family. He is the grand child of Ghantasala Balaramayya, director and producer, known for producing the Telugu film Seetarama Jananam, the debut film of Akkineni Nageswara Rao. Thaman hails from a family of musicians from Pottepalem, Nellore District. His father Ghantasala Siva Kumar was a Drummer, who worked for seven hundred films, under composer, K. Chakravarthy, his mother Ghantasala Savitri is a playback singer and his aunt is singer P. Vasantha.