As a biographer, Usman's meticulously researched books primarily focus on the great cinematic journeys of stars, delving not only into their stardom but also their turbulent personal lives and tragic downfalls.
In addition to working as a film critic and commentator, he hosted ABP News' digital show Cinema Uncut with Yasser Usman.
In 2022, Usman joined CricketnMore.com, the award-winning multilingual sports website (Cricket, Football, Tennis, Badminton, Kabaddi, etc) as the Consulting Editor and Digital Content Strategist.
In 2023, Usman started working as a Columnist[9] writing on cinema for Khaleej Times, UAE's longest-running English daily newspaper, published in Dubai.
Vijay Lokapally from The Hindu labelled it as an exception tribute to Khanna,[10] but Gautam Chintamani of India Today observed that Usman did not detail much of his films.
(1999),[15] Usman's one-year research for this work included collecting archives of magazine issues about Rekha and interviewing her contemporaries, around 40 to 50 people.
[18] Sowmya Rajendran from The News Minute wrote positively of the book's prose, calling it "fast-paced and lucidly written with plenty of spice, making it a perfect airplane read".
[21] Mint's Sanjukta Sharma praised Usman's deep research and his neutral point of view,[22] and Film Companion listed it as one of the "top seven books on cinema of the year".
[24][25] Writing for The Hindu, Mini Anthikad Chhibber appreciated the book's remembrances by Dutt's sister, the artist Lalita Lajmi.
[28] The Hindustan Times featured the book in their "The Most Interesting Reads of the Week" listing,[29] and The Telegraph included it in their year-end "Page Turners of 2021".
"[31] Yasser Usman has been recognised by the media as one of India's most successful film biographers[32] and gained a reputation for his writings that primarily focus on what is called the "dark side" of Bollywood.