InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) are grown on planar and maskless periodically grooved sapphires by metal organic vapour phase epitaxy (MOCVD). High-resolution x-ray rocking curves and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are adopted to characterize the film quality. Compared with the MQWs grown on planar sapphire, the sample grown on grooved sapphire shows better crystalline quality: a remarkable reduction of dislocation densities is achieved. Meanwhile, the MQWs grown on grooved sapphire show two times larger PL intensity at room temperature. Temperature-dependent PL measurements are adopted to investigate the luminescence properties. The luminescence thermal quenching based on a fit to the Arrhenius plot of the normalized integrated PL intensity over the measured temperature range suggests that the nonradiative recombination centres (NRCs) are greatly reduced for the sample grown on grooved sapphire. We assume that the reduction of dislocations which act as NRCs is the main reason for the sample grown on patte sapphire having higher PL intensity.