[en] In this paper, we have presented the surface effect of the substrates on Mn doped ZnO (Zn_1-xMn_xO) thin films grown on Si(1 0 0) and sapphire [i.e. Al₂O₃(0 0 0 1)] by RF magnetron sputtering. These grown films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) to know its structural, optical and magnetic properties. All these properties have been found to be strongly influenced by the substrate surface on which the films have been deposited. The XRD results show that the Mn doped ZnO films deposited on Si(1 0 0) exhibit a polycrystalline nature whereas the films on sapphire substrate have only (0 0 2) preferential orientations indicating that the films are single crystalline. The studies of room temperature PL spectra reveal that the Zn_1-xMn_xO/Si(1 0 0) system is under severe compressive strain while the strain is almost relaxed in Zn_1-xMn_xO/Al₂O₃(0 0 0 1) system. It has been observed from VSM studies that Zn_1-xMn_xO/Al₂O₃(0 0 0 1) system shows ferromagnetic nature while the paramagnetic behaviour observed in Zn_1-xMn_xO/Si(1 0 0) system